Sunset
by dib07
Summary: Dib and Zim are doing their usual and are bringing each other down when they can. But when Dib falls sick, Zim learns that even enemies need each other. Disclaimer I do not own Invader Zim.
1. Nobody knows it

Disclaimer; We do not own Invader Zim. This story is simply for fun and so that the universe of Invader Zim can continue and soar on through imagination and words.

My sixth Invader Zim story. My last four were all mini novels and I don't really want to write another long Invader Zim fic. Plus, I have a real novel waiting in the wings that needs to be spoon-fed every few hours. So I can't ignore that.

This story I'm going to make about Dib rather than Zim all the time. It's about time the spotlight shone on him once in a while. Also I would like to explore his complex character and extend on it. Heck, I might even pull a rabbit out of the hat. Who knows? And I wanted to start something completely fresh, rather than continue on and on like Ordnance and Exodus. Though I enjoyed writing them to the fullest, it's good to have some change.

Though I'll say again that Dib's life is I think, is far more complex than Zim's ironic, yes? At least Zim has a friend to bounce his ideas on (Gir) whereas Dib has no one. Not even his sister who feels superior towards him, despite the age difference. So yeah, this fic ain't gonna be easy.

And one more thing, I'm sick and tired of Dib suicide stories. I mean come on! He would never kill himself! Don't believe me you angst nuts? Then read these three simple facts of why he'd never commit himself to a premature end;

As long as Zim's around, he'll never end his life

If and only If something horrible happens to him i.e. death, Pro. Membrane will be there to fix and bring him back. Okay?

Too many other characters are fond of him. I.e. his own dad, his sister and guess who? Zim! Don't believe me then listen to Mopiness of doom!

There will be no ZADR I don't think. (Probably a first). If anything there will be ZADA. And no further.

On with the story. Born from the inspiration Dib gave me. (Or rather lent. He's stubborn more often than I am).

Enjoy.

Chapter 1; Nobody knows it 

'_He who stands higher, falls down lower.' – Old Proverb_

"Zim! Get the hell off planet earth!" A small boy, son of Professor Membrane and a brother to Gaz, ran across the playing field of Skool like some rabid leopard, excitably bounding along, desperate for prey in its mouth.

His glass-covered eyes focused on nothing but the green child ahead of him. He ignored everything else, including the kids yelling obscenities at him as he flew past, or the giant metal playing frame adorning much of the grass on the field. Then again, the green child ahead of him and rapidly increasing the distance between them, wasn't at all a child. He was Zim, the most egotistical, loud-mouthed alien known. His slight form was lithe and agile, and in mere leaps he was way ahead of Dib.

The chase wore the boy out, and he had to cease his sprint until he slowed to a stop at the water fountain near the entrance gates. Zim turned his head sharply to see his pursuer. Once he saw Dib had given up, he threw his thin arms into the air and melodically chanted his victory. It was hard to believe that a scrawny little alien such as himself, was an invader by his standards.

"You'll never win, Dib filth!" Zim crowed out sonorously, dancing on the spot madly in his deluded conquest. "Never!"

Dib snorted, fighting to get his breath back. The cold afternoon air stung his lungs. The bell clanked out behind them. Lunch was over and Dib had nothing but stern classes ahead.

He turned and started back. The vigor in his posture had been venomously been sucked away, leaving a dry, empty husk in its place. Dib hadn't a clue why he started chasing Zim in the first place. Maybe it was because Zim had slammed his head against his locker, or had shoved alien termites into his bag? It could have been all these things at once, and Dib had grown tired and angry with Zim's fermented antics.

It had been a year and seven months since that invader's arrival. And ever since then (he had been counting the days), had tried his best to announce to everyone that Zim was an alien. An alien bent on the destruction and decay of all humanity. But would they listen?

Still, Zim walked the earth, attempting whatever he could to rid the planet of human existence. He was like an exterminator. And a poorly inept one at that.

Dib walked, his whole body alert and stiff for anything Zim might pull on the way back to class. The invader was too busy crowing out his victory to bother with anything else. Dib was finding it easier to counter his schemes. Zim kept using the same old tactics. Nothing relatively new unless the situation called for it.

Ms Bitters was at her desk, reading a sheet of paper when they entered the classroom. The other children were talking away, taking up the opportunity to have a normal conversation before the teacher could silence them.

Dib sat down behind his desk, keeping his bright amber eyes on his antagonist. Zim kept his gelid grin that marred his green countenance. "Silly human!" He shouted across from his side of the room, "you're going to spend your whole filthy life trying to chase me down, only to fail!"

"That's what you think, Zim!" He retorted, wanting to throw the heaviest book the school had ever owned, right at the alien's head. However, that possibility was not close at hand, so he tried to ignore Zim's chuckles and concentrated on the teacher at her desk.

After a few more minutes of Ms Bitters scanning her sheet of paper for any dirt it seemed, she eventually put it down and fixed the children with a cold, glassy stare.

"Get your books out and don't just sit there. Work!"

The children immediately dived into their bags and rummaged for their textbooks.

"Now," she continued shrilly, standing up behind her desk, "turn to chapter eleven on shaving gorillas. It might show you how horrible it is to shave when you're older yourselves."

After school, Dib cheerily met up with his sister at the main entrance. She had her latest game device in her hand called the X119. Still, he didn't let the gadget come between them, try as he might.

"So, Gaz, how was your day?"

"Horrible." Came her latest one word answer. They walked side by side past the gates and onto the road.

"Zim, that stupid alien has been getting on my nerves all day! He just wants to be cut up on an autopsy table! He's asking for it!" He ranted; picturing an image of a helpless Zim strung up to a clean, surgical table with no hope of escape.

"Can you talk to someone else?" She groaned, "I'm trying to concentrate here!" Her fingers tapped vigorously on her game console. It's bright pink color always made Dib feel ill.

"Whatever." He replied, feeling a little sore. He jammed his white hands into his trench coat pockets as he faced the warm wind whispering from the east. He didn't like not talking. He liked conversations. It made him feel better. So, he tried again, aware of the patience leaking out of her. "Will dad be home tonight?"

"No. He's doing something at his office. A new light or something."

"Oh." So he was going to be on his own again, unless he sat down in the lounge with Gaz, which he often did. He liked her silent company and the tittering noises of her game pounding away as she skimmed through levels. He also had Mysterious Mysteries to watch, as long as it wasn't a rerun.

They got home and it was up to Dib to close the door, deactivate the alarm and scour the fridge for any possible dinner. Gaz however, sat on the couch in the front living room, ignorant to everything else.

Dib picked out his way through the food in the fridge. For some strange reason, he didn't feel very much like eating. "It's just worry." He reasoned with himself out loud, "and Zim did a great job causing it."

There wasn't much in the fridge to appetize him anyway. He checked the cupboards and the cereal shelf before returning back to his game-engrossed sister. "Wanna order pizza?" He asked her, figuring that the smell of fast food might bring his appetite back.

"All right." She replied, failing to look up at him, "but make it quick. I'm starving."

"Right."

He went back into the kitchen and picked up the phone on the shelf beside the window. The phone, like every decorative object, was shaped like Professor Membrane. He dialed the number he knew off by heart and listened to the dial tones.

_I won't eat. _He thought. _I have more important things to do, like spying on Zim's house._

First he'd order his sister's food, to make sure she was well fed and happy. Then he'd go before it got any darker outside.

"Dib?" Hollered his sister from her comfortable seat in the lounge, "have you ordered the pizza yet?"

"I'm doing it now!" He shouted. Finally someone picked up on the other end.

"Bloaty's Pizza Hog. How can I serve you?"

"One large pizza topped with cheese and pepperoni, please."

"That'll be eleven dollars. Anything else with that order?"

"No." Dib paced about the kitchen, half his mind trying to decide what to do at Zim's place and what entrance he should try for.

He hung up was he was done and proceeded up to his room where he threw his light duffel bag onto his bed, opened his window and started rifling through his wardrobe for his binoculars. He needed them to get a clear view inside his enemy's home. Then maybe he could spy on what he was doing, depending on where his location would be.

He found his small, silver pair of binoculars hiding under his drawer of black pants. He fitted the strap round his neck and took out his camera from its minuscule bag under his bed. One day, Zim had to let up and reveal to the world what he was. Then Zim's reign of terror would be over and mankind would be safe, all thanks to him, Dib Membrane. And he was going to be there, to witness it all. But most of all, it would impress his father.

Deciding he may as well stay in his trench coat rather than changing into combat gear, he left the house with a morose farewell to Gaz, who didn't even return his goodbye.

The walk to Zim's house was pleasant in some respects. The late summer sun was melting like cheese over the horizon far out over the buildings and the sky was freckled pink and wispy blue. The pollen from the flowers drifted through the air thickly as bees buzzed past his ear and butterflies majestically swept along to collect the nectar.

Zim's house was just around the corner; glad he didn't have much of a walking distance. And if it got too late, he could always quickly return home without even being anyone noticing that he had gone.

Zim's eerily slanted turquoise house with abnormal gnomes rose up into view like some house sprung from a horror movie. To his dismay, all the window blinds inside were drawn shut, emitting impervious assess for his spy binoculars.

_Darn. _He thought, edging closer to his nemesis's home. "Now what?" Maybe, he wondered, if he got a little closer and tried the doorknob? Sometimes, if he were lucky enough, he could turn the door and let it open quite freely if Gir had forgotten to lock it again. Sometimes it was as if the mad little robot wanted him to break in without a challenge. He could only dream.

Aside from his goal, the neighborhood was rather quiet. No one was out enjoying the late afternoon. Dib stood right outside Zim's gnome field, wondering how best to get in. He had already tried scaling the wall before, and then receiving some horrifying results.

The allure however of the door was too powerful, and realizing he hadn't the stealth equipment to hack inside Zim's murky depths, he decided to try and get inside.

He walked down the small unkempt path between the gnomes, expecting them to fire at any moment. However, their blank, ghastly pallid faces only discerned him go by, like automated guns that had used up all their ammo.

"This is too easy!" He told himself, reveling in this turn of events. He went for the door with confidence this time; he reached out his hand and clasped the doorknob tight…

A giant wave of pain flashed through his body and his eyes were filled with a grave white light, searing like molten fire. He let go of the knob, feeling great shivers wracking his body as the blinding pain continued. He cried out momentarily, like come wild cat who had stung its paw. Then the pain seemed to dramatically die and Dib opened his eyes. The doorknob was smoking and the gnomes were regarding him with disdainful curiosity. Zim must have wired the doorknob up with electricity.

"Damn you Zim!" Dib choked, voice wispy and half what it once was, "you think this is gonna stop me?" He gingerly started to walk back, gently nursing the hand that had been bitten by the electric current. He should have seen it coming. He had walked blindly into another trap. "I'll get you!" He shouted, hoping somewhere, Zim would hear him. "You coward! All you ever do is hide! Some alien invader _you_ are!"

He had had enough. He was going home.

Not looking back, Dib trudged back to his house, his hand still itching from the soreness of the sudden assail. Sometimes the current still coursed down is body and he involuntarily shivered as his nerves tingled uncomfortably. He was disappointed with himself for falling for a simple trap like that, and had caused himself unnecessary pain.

Gaz hadn't moved. She was still sitting on the burgundy sofa, chewing on the leftovers of the pizza he had ordered.

Whenever Dib returned from his adventures at Zim's base, he would boast to Gaz of how he had triumphed. What he had faced and how he had overcome it. Now, all he wanted to do was sleep and hope that the unnatural electric tremors in his body would cease. So without uttering a word, Dib went up to his room and slapped his door shut, separating himself from the world.

End of chapter 1.


	2. Calamity

A/N: Thanks to all the reviews and the positive responses, here's the next chapter as promised. I have loads of ideas for this fic, so keep your eyes peeled for updates. 

This chapter starts with a little character violence, but nothing our heroes aren't used to. Read on and enjoy!

Disclaimer; we do not own Invader Zim. If I did I would have licensed an official game for this show. Chapter 2; Calamity 

'_Now if I only knew what the fuck that means.' – The Dark Half – Stephen King_

Dib woke to a bright new day. Though the thought of going into school capsized him. He wanted to lie in. Right now the pillow under his head felt so relaxing and comfortable. Soon however, his younger sister was rapping on his door with her knuckles, yelling at him to get up.

Dib yawned, rubbed his eyes and placed his glasses on. The electrical shivers had left him during the night. No way was he going to try opening that door again.

He changed into his trench coat, brushed back his hair and ate a small breakfast. Then he and Gaz walked out together to SKOOL. Dib, with a weary vigilance, looked around for a certain green Irken. Sometimes they came across him, but more often now Zim was changing the times he left the house so as not to bump into them by accident. Dib had wanted to try that too, but he didn't want to leave his little sister to walk alone.

When they arrived in the playgrounds, Dib spotted Zim sitting on one of the benches, reading somekind of device he must have brought with him from his base.

Angrily, Dib stormed over, leaving Gaz alone to play her game.

"Zim, you moron!" Dib ranted when he came close enough, peered hatefully at Zim's disguised façade, "did you set that trap for me last night?"

"What else do you expect the almighty ZIM would do?" The Irken irefully shot back, but a little grin had crinkled his visage, "would you rather have Zim to allow you full assess? Human?"

_It's a trick question. _Dib quickly made up. "Just try better next time. Your ideas for stopping me are getting old!"

"Oh really, stinkbeast? How about I visit you instead then?"

That seemed to lodge a stone down Dib's stomach. "N-No!" He muttered hastily, waving his arms about, "there's no need for that! Unless you wanna risk being caught!" he added, hoping he had nailed the conversation to his advantage. But Zim seemed to have gained on it.

"I love new rules of risk to the game."

Dib sneered at him, beating back his fear. "You wouldn't dare enter my home!"

"Try me."

The black-clad human gave him a dark glare, before facing his back to him and trudging over to stand with Gaz. _Stupid alien._

Class had never been so dull. Dib doodled frantically in his book, drawing pictures of Zim being cut open and dissected. He wondered to himself how many times he had looked over at Zim to read his malleable expression.

"And one day," Ms. Bitters was saying in her usual harsh tone to scare the children, "the Universe will collapse in on itself. They'll be no escaping it. And everything will end in a horrible wave of doom." Zim threw his spindly arm up. Ms. Bitter's cast her eyes restlessly at him. "What is it, Zim?"

Zim shifted nervously in his seat. "Is this theory true? The Universe is immortal is it not? And when do you propose it err… dies?"

Ms. Bitter's glared down at him from her desk. "Nobody knows when, Zim. But soon everything will be gone."

Dib watched the fear mould in the Irken's lilac eyes. He loved seeing the Irken unfold to reveal a more vulnerable side. It made him feel superior, and it reminded him that this monster of an opponent had its weaknesses, that it was no different from an unwonted creature. That it had fears too and could be defeated just like anything else.

_Stupid Zim!_

He returned to his drawing.

During lunch, Dib had no appetite for food. Leaving his sister to eat on her own, Dib went to the bottom corridor to dispose of some of his weighty bags into his locker. He had to think of something to get back at Zim for trying to fry him. But what? And if, like the alien said, he were going to come up to his house, surely this would help him devise a way to hurt him? And even capture him? Then again, Zim could have just been bluffing. The Irken would risk way too much by challenging Dib on his own grounds.

"Dib stink." The nasal, scratchy voice filled his ears. Everything else was drowned out. He turned quickly to see Zim staring at him with a cold expression fixed on his face. "Thought I'd find you here. Either that or trying to hatch a pathetic plan in the boy's DISGUSTING bathroom!"

"I should have gone there then." Dib said firmly, closing his locker door, "I might have been able to shove your head down the toilet."

"Oh, that's funny." The alien barked sardonically, his strange lizard like tongue darting between his lips, "wanna try another?"

"Why don't you watch?" And Dib lunged for him. He didn't quite know why. He was just fed up of seeing that satisfied smirk on Zim's face. He always looked so defiant, like he could take on the whole world when he was positively dumb. He wanted so much to see fear in Zim's eyes. And he wanted to rip off that disguise and reveal to the world what an ugly creature he was.

Zim had not been expecting the pounce. The human collided fully into him, leaving the Irken winded and gagging for air. But Dib did not hesitate. He threw a fist at Zim's face, but the Irken clinched his hand in an iron grip. The little invader's reflexes were impossibly sharp. It made him feel slow and clumsy.

"We'll both get a detention!" Zim hissed through his clenched pink zipper teeth.

"I don't care if they're watching this! Why are you so worried when you have the whole world in you hands?"

His mocking tone seemed to simmer in the air like rancid heat. Children were starting to appear round the edges of Zim's vision. More and more of them, all in dappled coats and books, were watching intently. He couldn't stand the stares. Zim shoved Dib off him with such feral force that Dib was thrown into a locker.

Taking his chances while his enemy was dazed, Zim leapt to his feet and started to flee down the corridor. Dib angrily shook the stars threatening to overpower him in his mind and ran after the alien. The children were laughing, some however, weren't sure what to make of the whole ordeal and were waiting to see what was going to happen next.

Dib sprinted like never before. He was almost gaining on that miserable excuse for an Irken! He had to consider for a moment that he had never seen Zim run so fast! Either that, or he was slowing down.

"Zim! Turn and face me!" His scythe-like hair was swaying back and forth in his haste, trench coat flying behind him. But then, in the midst of the chase, just as he was about to throw himself at him, Dib's ears started ringing and the whole corridor seemed to have suddenly submerged in water. Little pinpricks of light flecked his sight and he had to stop to prevent himself from toppling over.

Zim stopped himself, inundation running through his complexion when he heard his greatest rival whimper out loud, only to halt in his chase. Dib slapped a hand to his forehead, and a painful ache rippled inside his chest. Before he knew it he was falling. Falling down.

He instinctively rose his hands up to protect himself but his limbs didn't comply to his commands. He hit the floor, never feeling the contact. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was the frightened, confused look in Zim's eyes. But it was a fear Dib didn't want to see.

A/N: I know, a very short chapter. Sorry!

TBC


	3. Limbo

A/N; I had no idea this story would get so many reviews. It looks like people are thrilled to see you dying, Dib! 

Dib; /folds his arms/ ahh great, you gave it away!

Zim; When will this stupid story revolve more around me? They're reviewing because they want ME! ZIM! 

Dib; Not this again! Grargh/charges into Zim and takes him down. Fighting ensues/

Hex; They're like a couple of children. Anyway, thanks to all those who reviewed. Those are;

chickens  
Alana-StarSugarCat  
animegurl088  
Snowbluerat  
Invader Beaver and Moe  
tere moto the sentry  
FairyKelly  
toxic-dreamer-2

Those who are reading this, check out their stories also. They are very good.

Disclaimer; We do not own Zim, his antenna, his Voot, the Skool….

Chapter 3; Limbo 

'_What is wrong with you people?' – Dib – Invader Zim_

The whole world seemed to stop and go deaf. Time no longer existed. Zim stood, frozen, looking down at Dib's lifeless body. He waited for the stupid human to rise. To use his filthy limbs and move! But waiting became too painful. The children, who were once laughing, had all stopped and were now staring too. Their eyes were glued on Dib's body like nothing else mattered. Then, a small girl broke from the gaping crowd, knelt down beside Dib and took his inert hand.

As the oppressing silence continued, Zim had to break it. _Dib's just playing tricks! _He imagined. "Get up Dib!" He commanded cheerily, "stop messing around!"

Alas however, his callous words did not summon Dib to his feet like they had always done in the past.

"Someone, get the nurse!" The little girl, who was holding Dib's hand shouted to the gathering crowd of children. A few broke away from the group, their senses returning to them. Someone however, burst through the jumbled mass of kids and threw herself to her knees on the floor beside her brother. Zim had seen her plenty of times to know that this was Dib's little sister.

"Everybody, get back, clear some fucking space!" Gaz was shouting amongst the tears. She had never showed this much feeling for Dib. Never. So Zim was struck with confusion.

The perturbed Irken allowed himself to be merged in with the crowd as they stepped back to allow more space. In truth, the alien invader was too shocked to do anything else. If Dib sure was messing around for attention, he was choosing a fine time announce that this was all just a big joke.

A teacher charged in through the barrier of kids, a cell phone in her hand. She pushed all the other children away except for Gaz.

"I've called his father," the teacher was saying, "we'd best take him to the nurse's office now."

Two more adults were fast approaching. Zim decided to make his leave. He was sure, in time, that everything would explain itself. Right now, however, he wanted to get away as far as he could from the whole scene swimming before his lilac eyes. This was not right. What was going on?

Dib came to awareness some time after his sudden fall. The placating darkness was receding morosely and he could feel clean bed sheets at his fingertips.

The cloying taste of antiseptics hit his nostrils, causing a tide of perplexity to flood his mind.

_Where am I?_

He opened his eyes and with a flash everything lay out before him like a dream. He was in a white and blue room with curtains cropped beside a small window and an examination table opposite him. He saw himself that he was lying on a bed like he was in a hospital.

"Son?" He looked up and saw his father standing by his bed. Now he knew where he was. He was in the school's nursing office.

The school nurse smiled down at him when he glanced at her. "Dad?" He croaked, feeling very lethargic and atrophied, "what… what happened? Why are you here?" A smudge of fear was overcoming him. He began to think of multiple scenarios where Zim had harmed him, or he had broken a leg after the fall.

"Good to see you, awake, son," Membrane said in his usual, patient manner like he was discussing something in one of his lectures at work, "you fell in the school corridor and was concussed. How do you feel? Are you in any pain?"

"N-No…" In fact he felt fine, a hundred percent almost, except of course for the sudden tiredness lapping over his bones. "How long was I out for?"

"Almost twenty minutes." The nurse said, "everyone was really worried about you."

_Sure. _He thought, unconvinced. "Dad, do you know where Zim is?"

His father let out a long sigh. "Son, why do you always seem to be so obsessed with that child? He is of no concern. Come on, hop out of that bed and I'll take you home."

The offer was tempting. Dib really didn't wish to face the classroom again after what happened. He was sure to get laughed at with rumors flying about like a beseeching virus.

The nurse gave him a fond look as he swung his legs round over the bed. _I've been lying here, unconscious for twenty minutes? Did I really hit my head that hard?_

He wondered vividly what had caused him to trip in the first place. But it could have been an accident; he was after all, fervently chasing his arch nemesis.

_And I get the day off._

His dad took him home in his car and the drive back was quiet and uneventful. Dib thought of Gaz and how she still had the rest of the day to slave away before making it home. That also meant that she would be walking home alone, and Dib couldn't have that.

"I need to go back to school later, dad," he said, folding his hands in his lap, "so I can walk with Gaz."

"No need," objected his father casually, "I'll drive down and pick her up. You just relax."

The attention made Dib uncomfortable but at the same time, pleased. His dad had never picked him up from school before and he was telling him to relax! _I need to have accidents more often!_

Trying not to think about what had transpired during his day, Dib leaned back and watched their home crop up in the distance.

The car pulled up, and Dib grabbed his school bag, opened the door and stepped out onto the gravel. Above him the sky was webbed with afternoon clouds that rolled gently from the south.

_Home._

The house was empty. Membrane followed him in, which Dib thought was unusual, but he appreciated the company, especially after his damaged pride.

"I want you to have something to eat and relax until I get home. I have a lot of work to do this evening." His father crudely stated as he poured a cup of water for himself in the kitchen and lowered his collar so that he could drink it.

"What work do you have to do?" He dumped his bag by the kitchen door, hair rumpled and messy. _I'll make myself a bath before I eat anything._

"I have to evaluate my new windowwasher theory." He said, eyes hazy with thought as he looked out into their garden through the window as the shadows lengthened. "It's all to do with household robots that can clean and do about any chore you ask them to do."

"Sounds cool."

"Yes, well…" He tipped the rest of the water down the sink, morosely patted his son on the shoulder and made his way to leave. "Just take the rest of the day easy and I'll be home at eight." And with that, he was gone.

Dib did as his father suggested. He ran a hot bath and soaked and scrubbed for almost an hour. He watched the frothy bubbles on the water's surface rise and burst. He even placed Gaz's rubber ducky in the bubbly water to distract himself from his loneliness.

As time passed, he wrapped up in a bathrobe and settled to watch some cartoons on the big TV. Gaz came home at quarter past three. She looked tired and grouchy. Her usual mood for the end of the day.

"Hiya Gaz!" He quipped as cheerily as he could muster, "miss me?"

"No. I prefer it without you." She threw her bag at a plant pot, took out her Game Slave 3000 from the table and was playing it with intensity.

Dib turned his attention back to the TV. "Did Ms. Bitter's ask after me?"

"How the hell should I know? She's not my teacher."

"Right."

"Did dad drop you off home?"

"Yes."

He rested his legs over the coffee table. He wondered about Zim. _Stupid alien. _He thought. _He's probably happy right now, dancing and cheering that I'm gone for the day._

Together, brother and sister, they had a light meal of pizza and chips. The smell of crispy tomatoes and pepperoni filled the lounge with a warm aroma. The clock chimed eight and Mysterious Mysteries came in after a long sequence of adverts. By now Dib was tired and fatigued. He watched almost half the episode in a daze. His father opened the door, shoulders slumped.

"Kids? Have you eaten?"

"Yeah." Came Gaz's stony reply.

"And how do you feel, Dib?" He came over to face him, resting a hand on his shoulder. Again, Dib jumped at the sudden attention.

"F-Fine!" He stuttered, fully awake now, "I am going into school tomorrow, aren't I?"

His father sighed and shook his head. "No, have a couple more day's rest. Then we'll see."

Normally Dib would be happy that he had some days off from school. But he didn't feel sick and keeping him home unnecessarily seemed more like a prison sentence.

When his father left him, Dib tried to keep focused on the positive side. At least now he had time to look over his files of paranormal activity and lay off his mountain of homework.

During the night, Dib lay in bed, breathing deeply and calmly. "Maybe I'll even go over to Zim's house and try and get inside it while he's away at skool?" He thought. It sounded like a good idea, and it seemed even better when he suggested it out loud.

The stars outside his window seemed to glitter with enormous strength. Dib traced pictures on his windowpane and soon fell asleep, no longer hindered by anxiety.

A/N; Trust me, it's far from over!

Dib; Yes! A break! Who's up for pepperoni pizza?

Zim; Me!

Me; Me!

Hex; Pepperoni? Yuck!

A/N; Final note, those who flame get gutted by Dib. Goodbye and we'll see you later!


	4. The flip of a coin

A/N; We're back again!

Dib; there are a lot of guesses to this fic. And no, it's nothing about a certain person's mother.

Zim: Ahhk!

Hex; OMG it's the pepperoni he ate!

Dib; He's blowing up! He's a monster!

Zim; //has turned into a hideously misshapen creature// I don't care what I look like! The taste of the pepperoni was worth it!

Disclaimer; We do not own Invader Zim but I would like that trench coat…

Chapter 4; The flip of a coin

'_How can it be certain where anything leads?' TK_

The next thing Dib knew, he was getting medicine shoved into his mouth on a daily basis. His dad would stop work and pop in especially to make sure he took it. Dib was not only sure his dad was hiding something from him, he was convinced. After the third day of not being able to go to school Zim rang. This was not unusually for his most hated enemy to phone him. On occasion, they did it quite readily to pass up more insults and sour jokes. It was more effective when they didn't have to look at each other.

"What do you want, Zim!" Dib shouted into the cordless shiny white cordless phone. He looked over himself. He was in his loose jeans and trainers. He hadn't been put at all today.

"Just to make sure you were still alive, you rotten human creature!" Zim cackled, "but you'd better get into school soon Dib, because I'm planning something horrible!"

Dib's eyes instantly widened like he had just been given an injection of some kind. "Horrible did you say?"

"Yes. Now tell me Dib human, why aren't you in school trying to stop me? Or have you finally got weak? You collapsed in that school corridor like dough! Or was that to fool me?"

Typical Zim. Dib was used to this. Zim was so selfish and could not see beyond his own vision. As long as nothing involved the Irken, even if it was a disaster in America, it may as well cease to exist to Zim.

"I… I… lost my footing. That's what happens when you run too fast! And when humans get real high blood pressure… they might…" Oh, why was he telling Zim this? "It was a migraine okay! At least dad told me it was!" _And he's lying._

Zim reposed on the other end of the line that seemed to take some time. Then he uttered a little more grouchily, "You'd better be in school Dib. You can't avoid me forever!"

"I wasn't…" He couldn't finish. The line had gone dead. He forgot that Zim had a habit of hanging up in the middle of a conversation. "Fine."

The next day, before Pro. Membrane went to work; Dib was hanging off his science robe like a desperate child.

"Please dad! Please lemme go to skool! This is insane keeping me here at home when there is clearly nothing wrong with me!"

Membrane looked at him sadly, like he had been doing for almost four days now. Dib just didn't understand it.

"Unless of course," his son continued, "you're not telling me something! Are you keeping secrets from me?"

"No." His brow was fused and his voice was thick with concern. "No, son. I am merely trying to keep ahead of the problem. Like I always do. And you may suffer another migraine or fall again during skool."

"That was a one-off!" He paced about the polished kitchen floor in anger. "You can't keep me here! What about my education? My future life?" He didn't care if he was ranting. "Please, dad! I wanna study! Nothing has happened to me while I've been at home."

His father gave him a long, hard stare, and Dib was expecting the worst. If so, he was prepared to slip out of his room and sneak into skool if worse came to worse. Then, after what must have been a hell of a thought, Membrane agreed.

"All right son, but only if you stick to these conditions. During your fifteen-minute break, I need you to take your medication. And at exactly twelve in the afternoon when skool lunch is on, I want you to come straight back home."

_Pff, migraine._

He didn't want to argue. A half day was enough to see what Zim was up to. Unless of course he could stay for a full day. "Fine."

"Good."

When his father had left for work, Dib grabbed his school bag and shoved all his books into it.

"Sod it all," he was saying to himself, "I'm not going to be pathetic and take stupid medication I don't even need!" Dib was very paranoid when it came to his body chemistry and he didn't want to inject drugs or strange foreign stimulants into his body. He hated medicine and anything and everything to do with it.

"Hold on… what am I taking anyway?" He picked up his bottle of tablets and read the label. On it read; 'Quinidine. Do not overdose on this medication. Should be taken three times daily. Do not exceed recommended use.'

"Quinidine?" That did not sound like headache medicine. He looked all over the bottle and its instructions for any more information. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. "Why dad? Why won't you tell me?"

When Gaz walked to the front door, all dressed and ready for school, Dib came down the stairs to join her. And he was smiling. He couldn't believe he was actually looking _forward _to school.

_I am such a geek!_ He thought happily.

Gaz looked at him with confusion swirling in her eyes. "Are you coming today too?"

"Of course!" He disdainfully replied, "why shouldn't I?"

"Does dad know?"

"Yes!" Then he frowned. Did she also know something he did not? "I am planning to spend the whole day in class! You'll finally have your brother back again! Neat huh?"

"No."

He shrugged, knowing full well how Gaz's mood swiftly turned.

Without further ado, they left the Membrane residence and headed to the school. Gaz seemed so concerned for him she even mentioned that perhaps they should ride the bus into school. Dib cocked his head sideways. Why was Gaz so concerned?

"Walking has never harmed us before, Gaz." He responded diffidently, "besides, we're too early to catch the bus. Waiting for it would only cause delay." And walking to school also promoted a meek chance that he might run into Zim. Might.

The day passed like another day except that Dib got teachers asking after him.

"You been feeling all right?" The principle would ask, "haven't seen you for several days!"

Dib had to correct them all, saying how he stayed home as a health precaution and nothing more. The only teacher who didn't express the slightest hint of concern was of course Ms. Bitters. Nothing had changed there. And this little bit of normality suited Dib just fine. Even Zim seemed to be happy he was back by calling him names and sneaking up and frightening him when he wasn't looking.

Everything was back to normal. Or so Dib thought.

Afternoon break passed and Dib didn't take the medication his father strictly told him to take. He hadn't even brought the bottle of pills with him to school. But freedom from the medicine felt like freedom.

Before their last period, which was English, Zim was rummaging in his bag for his textbook. He seemed to have misplaced it, from the signs of worry sprouting all over his face. Dib's observations had come in handy. Understanding Zim's emotions, no matter how fast they were displayed, had their rewards.

"So, done anything yet on this plan of yours Zim?" The scythe haired boy smiled. He had his arms folded neatly over his chest.

"Oh sod off Dib filth! Can't you see I'm busy?" More rummaging.

"Well, I've got English to study and I won't be wasting anymore time with you." Dib checked his watch and waltzed into the classroom. A while ago, Ms. Bitters was fed up of teaching all her kids every lesson. So she split them up and made them go to different teachers to teach them the subjects.

A male teacher was lecturing them today. Dib didn't even know his name. Sometimes it wasn't worth the bother to remember.

He got out his pencil, ruler… the standard equipment. Outside it had started to rain. Light at first, and then the sprinkle turned into something marginally more violent. Dib whistled. He looked over his shoulder at Zim who sat two rows down from him. The Irken had also noticed the tilt in weather, but this time he did not seem bothered.

_Must have bathed in paste again._

As the lesson progressed, Dib felt a little cold. And he started to shiver. He cursed at the school's cheapness for not being able to afford a proper heating system. But his shivers soon lengthened into hard tremors and a startling pain raced across his chest. The sensation of it reminded him of the pain he felt right before he collapsed in the school corridor. This was not migraine. Migraine was something you felt in your head. He was having chest pains.

He began to feel more unwell and he was very soon wishing he had taken the medication. As the seconds passed, he hoped the pain, or whatever it was would ease off. The clusters of shivers only continued. Even Zim straightened in his seat and lifted his head to watch Dib's twitches.

_Nurse. Get to the nurse! Or at least leave the classroom before you do something else embarrassing! _Spoke a small, reserved voice in his head.

Without further hesitation, he flimsily lifted his white hand. The teacher nodded over at him when he had just finished marking a book.

"Finished that essay, yet Dib?" He asked.

"Erm… I need to use the bathroom." Those simple words took a lot of effort to get out. What in hell was wrong with him?

_It's indigestion! It's gotta be indigestion!_

"Can't you wait until the home bell?" He asked, giving him a narrowed stare.

"No!" _Please! _He begged.

The teacher sighed and nodded once more. "Fine. But don't be long."

Dib almost wanted to dash out. He grabbed his bag and hurried out as fast as he could without breaking into a run. When he was out of eyeshot, he eventually broke into a limping canter. But this only seemed to encourage the ill feeling within him. He wanted to puck… he wanted to sick up his guts.

_I wanna go home…_

He was violently sick just before he reached the lavatory. His stomach contents hit the floor like a waterfall.

_Oh Gods…_

He had to lean against the wall to keep himself standing. His world became a notion of dizzy colors, faded lights and a spinning vortex of confusion. He dropped his bag, feeling too weak to hold any weight but himself. Somehow, he managed to limp the rest of the way into the boy's toilets and lock himself in a cubicle where no one could see him collapse.

Dib looked down at his hands to see them trembling. Then, he sat down on the toilet seat, soon the shivers resigned themselves to a slight, almost undetectable shiver. After a few more moments of breathing deeply and listening to the wet drip-drip sound from the sinks, he felt better.

"Well, I think I'm okay…" He whispered forlornly to himself. He considered what had happened to him. Maybe it was just an attack of nausea? And some pretty weird things happened when people were withdrawing from their prescribed drugs.

He must have stayed in the toilets so long that very soon after, the end of the school bell rang out like a reproaching bellow. Soon the incessant silence and the dull thud of water droplets became overpowered by the sound of children's feet pouring out from their designated classrooms.

Dib listened for a few minutes until finally finding the strength to stand back up again. His legs only buckled once. His main objective now was to find Gaz and get home. And when he thought of home, no other thought had been so welcoming.

He opened the door to his cubicle, grabbed his bag and shuffled out into the cool corridor. Swarms of students made their way past him. He peered at the many faces but could not discern his sister. He wanted to hurry and find her before his nausea heightened again.

In hopes of finding her outside, he left the building and started on his usual path to walk home. The big fat yellow buses had parked in all the free parking lanes to pick up the school children. The air was a tempest of noise and engine smoke.

His amber eyes studied more swathing crowds of unruly children. Then at last, when he felt like giving up, he spotted her. She was walking just ahead of him. Her head was down and her shoulders were haunched up.

"Gaz!" Dib had to run to stride alongside her. His sister looked up at him and was about to look down at the floor again when she noticed how pale and sweaty he looked.

"What's the matter with you?" She shot at him. Her question was not one of concern.

A thousand confessions flew up in his mind.

_I'm sick Gaz! I'm really, really sick!_

_Dad was right!_

_I should have stayed home!_

But he chose none of them. "Nothing! Nothing at all!"

She gave him a good once-over with her stare. "Good."

"Yeah."

After Gaz's stinging stare, they walked on in silence. The buses growled past on the road and the bitter winds sliced through the air. A few waves of dizziness startled Dib as he walked. His feet clumsily went forward like they were on auto-pilot and the brightness of the lurid afternoon made his eyes water. He had to physically push himself the rest of the way home when his legs felt weak again. He never knew the way back home could be slow and agonizing.

_What if Zim's done something to me?_

He could not remember a time where he and Zim had been close during recess or lessons. But all the same, he could have injected something into his bloodstream through any means of contact. He had done it before when he introduced bologna DNA to his body using a simple tak.

To defeat an enemy via an injection of an illness was a really low tactic. As soon as they got home, Dib ran upstairs, grabbed the bottle of pills and downed the max dose of two tablets dry.

"I thought you looked kind of… off…"

Dib spun round at the voice and saw his sister standing at his door entrance. "Gaz!"

"I'm calling dad."

"No…" A flash of pain instantly made him bit down on his words. As soon as the discomfort had passed, he mumbled, "okay…"

Gaz nodded and headed downstairs. Dib sat down on his bed and lifted both hands to his head. The pain felt like he had been shot somewhere but he was not injured. He even went as far as to take off his trench coat and blue shirt to examine himself. There was nothing that even gave the faintest clues as to why he felt like this. And he didn't feel sick as in having a flu or cough. He had a temperature but he didn't have a runny nose or a headache. It was like some monster was inside him and was ripping at his organs from within.

He hoped Gaz was calling dad right this very second, and if she was, he prayed his dad would come soon.

Putting his clothes back on didn't start any new pain. Carefully he propped his pillow up and lay against it, breathing as deeply as he dared. All remnants of the pain seemed to recede entirely and he mentally thanked the medicine for that. Slowly, he closed his eyes and fell into an exhausted nap.

A/N; I am sooo sorry I haven't updated in a while! Bad me! But I have a full time job and I'm writing two novels! I don't want pity, but I find it hard to fit the time in. Plus my pet ferrets keep pestering me.

Hex; You're telling me!

Dib; I want some hotdogs!

Zim; And thanks for those reviews! Yep!

A/N; I would personally like to thank;

DemonSurfer; aww I really wanna tell you but I can't. Though this chapter probably gave it away anyway.

SqueekyPhr33k; Thanks! I will! You too!

Sudonim; Yeah, I've been there too and it isn't very nice. Dib hasn't realized it yet. Worry and anxiety does that too you. Thanks for the review! It meant a lot!

Alana-StarSugarCat; Lol, you never know quite what's going to happen. Sorry for the delay on the update.


	5. The antagonist

A/N: So sorry i have not updated in over two years!!!! I am so terrible and i do feel awful. Invader Zim is always an inspiration to me and something i will never abandon and i do honestly know what it feels like to read an awesome story and then the darn author/fan writer never, ever updates!

A loyal reader said that the last time i updated this was in 2007. I am so sorry. Time flies by and i had two major computer crashes that wiped all my stories so i had to start again from scratch.

Disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim. This is purely for fun.

Dib: I've got rust on me

Sonic: Yeah, that's normal. You ain't burrowing my polish though.

Zim: Ugh, so we're still here then? Oh mercy!

Chapter 5; The antagonist

'_You__'__re not healing, just concealing.__'__–__ Meat Loaf __–__ Razor__'__s edge_

Professor Membrane got the call from Gaz almost immediately which was a very rare thing. Often it was nearly impossible to get a hold of the renowned professor. He had been on his lunch break when he answered the phone, and even during lunch he was working.

As soon as his daughter delivered the message about his son, he was out of the science building in the blink of an eye. All thoughts or work and his dedication to it were gone. He jumped into his car, started the engine and almost blasted his way out of the car park.

Things were not going normally for Zim. And he did not like things that went in an unpredictable fashion. His main aim was to keep all things under control, and if he couldn't do that, he would keep things under surveillance until he could control it. As of late, Dib was doing just that, and swindling his efforts to keep track of what his enemy was doing. The Dib, the puny earthling, the inferior meat bag, was taking days off school. And when he did suddenly appear in school the next day, he left class early, and only to limp home with his sister like something was wrong. Wrong as in, this wasn't your every day thing. Wrong as in something was different.

This could only mean that Dib was up to no good. He had done this sort of thing before a year or so. He had taken one day off to build a small bot that could infiltrate Zim's mighty base. And from all Zim could remember, that was the only day off he had ever taken. So why now was all this happening? There was only one answer. Dib was planning something huge.

"It's about time too." Lately their foolish play had been minor compared to what they used to do to each other in the past. They fought and they bickered. Then they would wrestle and swear at one another. No longer did they pull out the big guns and declare war. Now maybe Dib had grown bored of the child's games and wanted more? _It__'__s about time indeed._

But of course, Zim wanted to be prepared for whatever the Dib was planning. He had to have it under control. It was his way of survival. So, what he'd do (he had been planning this up in his head for a long time now) was place some spying devices inside of Dib's home. Shouldn't be too hard. Dib had done it a thousand times before to him, and failed of course. Now it was the Irken's turn. And by surveying his day-to-day activities, he could hear every plan, every secret Dib would think up. The big headed fool was so stupid that he commonly said things out loud to himself. So, Zim got to work.

He abandoned his homework and started on his new projects. It was going to be so easy!

Gir was in some strange fashion sense lately. He came down from the top floor in a fedora and a pink dress small enough to fit a 3-foot porcelain doll.

"Gir! Get that disgusting filth off you!"

"Yes Master!" He did so, eyes flashing red and then back again to a bright vivid cyan. He tossed the clothes off him and stood proudly as if he had just won a competition.

"I have a mission for you, Gir."

"Yes, my lord?" He did the all-too-familiar salute.

"I want you to go to that Dib filth's house and plant these inside." He shoved metal circles into Gir's hands that looked like tiny silver beetles. There was also a bundle of high-tech wire and tiny microbe antennas. "Zim is ingenious! With these Gir we'll know exactly what that little runt of a human is planning!"

"Yay!" He liked it when his master was happy.

"But you have to do it properly. You'll need to be stealthy too, or you'll be seen." Zim marched backwards and forwards in his laboratory. He had gone through every disguise imaginable through the years. Now he was really being pushed for new ideas. Finally he came to a long purple tube, tapped a few buttons with his claws and a little brown doggy suit popped out of the lid like a dryer chute. He picked up the material and waved it in front of Gir's face.

"Put this on." He commanded.

Gir looked at it carefully. "I don't like it. I like my green suit. This one smells."

Zim sighed. "I don't care if it smells or not! As long as it does its job, it's brilliant because it has been designed by ZIM!"

Gir took the suit disdainfully. But, as ordered, he slipped into the suit without further compliant. Zim did not wholly trust Gir. He almost felt like putting a tracking/surveillance device on him as well. _Irony._

"Now, you will go to the Dib's lowly house, understand my little minion of doom?"

Gir saluted and, with the devices, marched off like a robot solider. Now left alone, Zim turned back to his computer and began typing. That horrible human stink beast would have no idea.

"Remember Dib, you can hide nothing from me… Nothing…"

Professor Membrane didn't even properly park in the drive way when he got to his house. He wasn't even sure if he had properly locked his car. All that mattered was getting to his son. It had been a long time since he had felt concern for anything or anyone. The irony of it all was that something bad had to happen first before you realized how precious other lives were.

He opened the front door with an ominous BANG. He saw Gaz sitting on the sofa like a rigid zombie. "Where's Dib?"

"Upstairs." She answered swiftly. Her eyes left the screen on the controller and fixed her father with a wide, ample stare. Professor Membrane nodded and proceeded on his way. He climbed the stairs, located his son's room and burst in. Dib sprang awake (having been fast asleep all this time) and shook when he saw the anger in his father's narrowed eyes.

"What happened?" Whenever he was angry, his voice was rough and course.

Dib had no idea what Gaz had said to him on the other side of the line, but he just had to assume that Pro. Membrane knew everything.

"I… I went to school…"

"And?" Now he folded his arms.

"I… I stayed… all day…"

"I told you to go home at lunch!"

Dib fell miserably silent.

His father tapped a boot on the floor. "Did you take your medication?"

"No dad… but I took two tablets as soon as I got home."

"How could you! After all I told you!"

Dib disposed of his sudden fear and shame. How could his father be telling him off like a child? He was the victim! He was the one who had no idea what in hell was going on! He

should be the one who was angry!

Dib set him a fierce glare. "I am not sorry!" He swallowed hard. "I didn't expect the pain… I didn't expect the nausea… I felt fine dad! And… and what is this so-called medication I'm supposed to be taking? Huh?" He moved his glasses higher up his nose. "What is quinidine for?"

His father sighed and all his anger dropped away like an old skin. He approached his bed and put an arm round him. "You're not well." He said, "but I'm looking up better treatments for you in my lab."

"What's wrong with me?"

"First, tell me, where are the pains coming from?" Dib thought for a moment. He wasn't actually sure. "And what other symptoms are you experiencing?"

"I…" He wished he had been given more time to answer the question. "I feel like I'm gonna puck… and I feel like I'm gonna faint…" So far it felt like he was describing the pure symptoms for heavy migraine. "Bright… flashy lights… but the pain…" The pain was so much different. "I… I don't know where it starts…" Fear was starting to creep in again.

"That's okay. When did you last take the tablets?"

"As soon as I got home. 3:15."

"I suggest you take two more before you go to bed. Come on, take a bath, get all warmed up and I'll make dinner. Then you need to sleep. Is the pain completely gone?"

"Yes…"

"Good." He patted his son on the back. Dib was suddenly fond of the unusual attention he was getting again. He smiled despite himself.

He did as his father said and had a long, relaxing bath. When he got out and changed into his creamy white bathrobe, he caught his reflection and was startled at the pale ghost of a boy looking eerily back at him. His eyes were sunken and they had black rings all the way round. He looked away and pulled the bath plug. He watched the water drain away and wondered if his life was draining away too.

Dib had a small meal of toast, butter and an apple. He couldn't manage anymore. He guessed it was more out of his worry than anything else. He went to bed at about six in the evening and was too tired to sit up and read. He was even so caught up in lassitude that he failed to see a brown dog thing flash by his window.

Soon after, he was asleep after only a minute of resting his head.

Shortly after he closed his eyes, Membrane came up to his room and watched him sleep for a while. A look of worry and loss was etched all over Membrane's once impervious features.

The devices had been planted. It hadn't been easy. Gir had reported back that he could only do it while all three members of the Kaiser household were distracted. Gaz was easy. She hardly ever looked up. Membrane and talking to Dib. So all three were busy doing something.

Once they were all online (Gir had stuck the devices in all the rooms high up on the ceiling) they produced a visual, as well as an audio line. Zim's computer screen showed Dib sitting on his bed and Membrane kneeling down on the floor with one arm wrapped around his son. Their voices were loud in that room. The visuals were perfect. Zim could see every emotion the two were conveying, and the visuals had night vision when all was dark.

'"_I__…__ I went to school__…"_Dib was saying.

"_And?__"_

"_I__…__ I stayed__…__ all day__…"_

"_I told you to go home at lunch!__"_There was a pause, then;_"__Did you take your medication?__"_

"_No dad__…__ but I took two tablets as soon as I got home.__"_

"_How could you! After all I told you!__"_

Zim smiled a little. Dib's little ploy involved lying to his father as well.

The voices escalated.

"_I am not sorry! I didn__'__t expect the pain__…__ I didn__'__t expect the nausea__…__ I felt fine dad! And__…__ and what is this so-called medication I__'__m supposed to be taking? Huh? What is quinidine for?__"_

Zim's antennas pricked up. "Quinidine?" He watched a little more closely.

"_You__'__re not well. But I__'__m looking up better treatments for you in my lab.__"_

"_What__'__s wrong with me?__"_

The question was simple. And Zim knew that Membrane wasn't about to answer that one for some reason.

"_First, tell me, where are the pains coming from? And what other symptoms are you experiencing?__"_

"_I__…__ I feel like I__'__m gonna puck__…__ and I feel like I__'__m gonna faint__…__ Bright__…__ flashy lights__…__ but the pain__…__ I__…__ I don__'__t know where it starts__…"_

Zim could see that Dib's fear was genuine.

"_That__'__s okay. When did you last take the tablets?__"_

"_As soon as I got home. 3:40.__"_

"_I suggest you take two more before you go to bed. Come on, take a bath, get all warmed up and I__'__ll make dinner. Then you need to sleep. Is the pain completely gone?__"_

"_Yes__…"_

"_Good.__"_Membrane patted his son on the back.

Zim leant back in his chair. Tablets? Pain? Treatments? Now he was suspicious, and greedy for more information. He was almost as frustrated as Dib when Membrane did not tell him why he was feeling like this. So why indeed? He zoomed in one the name pictured on the pill bottle.

Zim went straight to work. His claws danced on his keyboard as he looked up the drug; Quinidine. A thousand results came up and Zim did not know what to look for. He was suddenly lost in pages and pages of information that could be full of crap, or something important. He had to filter the search.

'_Quinidine: search for: drug?__'_

The results took some time coming back to him. What he saw did not please him.

It all mounted up in his head like a math lesson in skool. Dib was very poorly. He had been telling the truth. He was ill. Equals, he was not planning anything. Nothing at all.

Zim smiled and turned off the monitor. His work was done. "The Dib filth will die and I will finally conquer this rancid planet! Time to celebrate!" He left his chair, grabbed an Irken ice drink from his freezer and a sandwich Gir had earlier made. But as his munched on the beverage, his mind still continued to surge ahead.

No Dib meant no more fighting.

No Dib meant that earth conquest would not feel like true victory.

No Dib meant no more fun. No more games.

No Dib meant that everything was over.

No Dib meant that it was time to move on.

And no Dib meant that he might have to go back to see his Tallest.

After living so long on earth, he really didn't want to encounter his own kind again. It was something he didn't want to ever admit, but it was true all the same. He had lived on earth so damn long; he was kind of fond of it. This left the Irken confused and frustrated at himself.

Soon, without even truly thinking it out, he had turned on the monitor again and noticed that Dib's room was morbidly dark. A flicker of fear rose in his chest but he quickly squashed it out. _The stupid human is sleeping!_

He activated night vision and Dib was in bed, under the covers so that only his long black scythe poked out the top. For hours, Zim surveyed the screen, recording anything he cared to.

TBC


	6. The protagonist

A/N: Here we go again!!!! Sonic's fault for making me late updating. Sorry this chapter is a bit short. Blame Sonic for everything.

Sonic: Hey!!!!

Billie the fourth sage: Lol thx for the review, lololol I hope it's thickening too!

Liani Risate: Lol Prof. Membrane is one evil guy to keep things from his own son, and Dib will have his own way once he does find out exactly what it is.

Sorcerer Moe: Thx! Me too!

animehphantom: Well here you are my friend!

Lady Jelly Sandwich: Dude love your name! Dude makes me hungry! Dude!

Rebecca The Animorph: Hope you're still out there! :D

Chapter 6; The protagonist

'

A new day had sprung. Zim went to school and went through the normal routine of classes and homework but the days were always boring and dull without Dib around. Zim actually started to produce homework that lacked effort. His depression showed through the whole day and even Ms. Bitter's noticed. But he didn't care. Then he began to wonder if he should keep attending school. He decided that he had to. He didn't want to become obsessed with his computer monitor at home and watch Dib do whatever he did when someone was on their own in a big house. The thought of it however was very inviting.

So Zim tried everything to aim his attention away from the black-clad human and tried to see life without him at all. It was difficult. He even went as far as to make one friend. But Poonchy stayed clear away and the Irken really didn't want another episode of Keef.

Sadly, his tactics failed and in the end he found himself walking over to Gaz during recess. She was sitting on one of the outdoor benches with her game devices clutched in her fingers. She had been on her own now without a brother for almost four days. Gaz being Gaz however, didn't seem to mind. Well, at least that was what it looked like.

Zim kept at a distance when he approached her. She only looked up briefly and her eyes seemed to tell him to come no closer.

"It's not going to be long until this planet is mine, little Gaz." He crowed at her.

She shrugged.

Zim couldn't believe his eyes. Did she not care? No, of course not, she rarely cared about anything except when the next sale was in the usual Game shop.

"You'd better be making preparations!" He continued despite her lack of enthusiasm to respond, "because it's going to be soon!"

"Humph! Go away! I get rid of one nuisance just to be irritated by the next!"

Zim frowned. His fake eyes narrowed at her. "What did you say?"

"Go away!" She picked up an empty coke can by the side of her leg and threw it as hard as she could at the Irken. Zim's sharp reflexes allowed him to dodge it easily.

"You didn't make him ill, did you?"

Gaz stared at him then like some psychopath ready to dismember a helpless victim. "How do you know he's ill?"

Zim's eyes darted left and right. He quickly recovered himself. "He showed all the signs of weakness, Gaz. An Irken never falls ill but that doesn't mean he doesn't know about it! He fell in school did he not? No information gets by ZIM!" He temporarily flew his arms up in the air.

"Right." She regarded him with apt annoyance. "Well, I didn't make him sick. It's a good idea but I wouldn't even know how to." And she was back to her gaming that seemed to immerse her in another world.

Zim crudely stuck his long tongue out at her. The bell went for the end of break.

"Let's see him degenerate."

Home time. Zim packed his books, zipped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. Its dull weight reminded him how much more homework needed to be done.

He did not see Gaz again though he looked for her in the crowd of children heading home. The usual buses sped past and soon Zim was walking on his own up to his culdersak. He walked up to his house and was ready to ring the doorbell when the bushes behind him rustled. Zim's lilac eyes glared hotly at the bush as if it had become a meddlesome foe.

"Whoever is hiding in there, get out now! Get out or Zim will destroy you!"

"You need to think of something better to say, and something that you will promise to do. I hate empty threats." Dib stepped out of the bushes. His hair was matted and his skin was white but other than that, he looked like the same old Dib.

Zim couldn't hide his grin. "You don't say! How long have you been sneaking round my base? I hate guests that don't knock first!"

"I didn't try to break in, though I could have done." Dib folded his arms and shot a quick glance at the roads to see if anybody was watching them. "Zim, I've come to ask you a favor."

"Favor? Huh! Not this again! Invader's help no one!" His cackles felt like needles driving into Dib's head.

"Shut up!" He hoarsely yelled. He uncrossed his thin arms. "If you do this for me, in return you get half of my files on you."

"Half? How about a human test subject? Or the whole planet for whatever it is you're trading?"

Dib morosely shook his head. He lowered his eyes. "Half of my files. Or all of them. I need to use your computers. I need to find out what's wrong with me."

"Why not use your own?"

"They're not powerful enough… I need… I need to look inside my body…" To him it almost sounded like the Aliens movie he had watched when he was little. That was one horrible film.

Zim's grin curled even wider. He loved the control. He could almost taste it. _Yes, Dib worm, beg, oh beg you worthless little pig._

When Dib got no reply, he added in a desperate, broken voice, "please?"

Oh, so many would have fallen for that look Dib was trying to pull. "No. You will not gain my help nor my technology. Now off with you, before you collapse again."

Dib's mouth hung open. He didn't look all-surprised. He was obviously expecting this sort of reply, but he couldn't hide the looming disappointment. "You're evil and heartless, alien." He choked. Zim blinked. Was he about to cry? The human turned, gave him one last dark look and was off again. His steps were slow and unhurried, as if advancing any faster would physically hurt him.

"Oh, go and cry you useless bag of bones!" Zim shouted from across his yard, "why do you always expect the enemy to help the weak? Why you retched creature?" In a similar act to what Gaz had done earlier that day, Zim looked about his yard and spotted the garden gnome on his left. He ripped off its little plastic arm and threw it hard at Dib's head. The boy didn't even see it coming. It landed true, and Dib was running, leaving a trail of tears behind him.

That night, Dib clicked and searched through files on any information he could glean from his laptop. The results only brought failure after failure. And as he looked through medicine websites and the common ailments and their symptoms on the human body, Zim's taunts ran through his head like a rollercoaster ride.

'_Favor? Huh! Invader__'__s help no one!__'_

Dib bit his lip. He knew better than to go to him for help. He shouldn't have tried.

"I'll know what I'll do," he said, "I'll go down to my local doctor. He'll find out." The idea was the best one he had had all damn day. But first he had to make an appointment. Or worse, break into his father's lab and tear it down until he found the answer.

He left his laptop and his desk only to clumsily trip over his purple swollen eyeball carpet. Cursing, he reached for his phone, grabbed his address book and started to dial the GP's number. The only thing was, he hated doctors, needles, medicines, whatever. And he hated going in on his own. But it was a phobia he was going to have to overcome if he wanted help.

The phone answered. "Hello? This is the County Close GP. How may I assist you?" It was a lady speaking.

Dib brushed awkwardly at his hair and swallowed. "I would like to make an appointment to see a doctor."

"Okay…" There was a fervid pause. Dib guessed she was looking on her computer to see if there were any available vacancies. "What time would you like the appointment?"

"As soon as possible."

"And what appears to be the problem sir?"

Dib wrinkled his nose. That question was a little personal. "I haven't been feeling well."

Another pause. "How about tomorrow at 11.00am for your appointment. How's that?"

"Good."

"And you'll be with Dr. Florence."

He nodded. "Thank you."

"Your name and address?"

He recited it tiredly. "Dib Kaiser, 27 Canvas Road." That's it. He had done it. He had booked himself into a building where doctors injected sick patients with toxic chemicals. The nightmares were already playing in his head before he even placed the phone back on its receiver. "I'll find answers of my own."

He sat back at his desk and took two tablets of his medication with a glass of water. As long as he took the pills, he felt fine. The only time he didn't take the pills every few hours was when he was sleeping. And that was when the pain started. It was always mild and continued like that when morning broke, but it interfered with his dreams. Who had a good sleep anyway when they were in pain?

Pro. Membrane did not come home at his usual time that night. It was past eight o'clock and Dib found that he could not stay awake any longer. He wrote a note for his father and left it on the fridge for him to see. Then he changed into his pyjamas and lay in bed for a few minutes contemplating. He felt a little ashamed that he had asked Zim for help. He should have known better than to see him. Though at least he had tried.

He rolled over on to his side and drifted to sleep.

When next he woke up, it was still as black as night. He turned on his bedside lamp and looked about him. What had woken him up?

He yawned and rubbed his eyes. His glasses were resting neatly on the nightstand and he slipped them on.

"Gah, I can never sleep anyway."

He got out of bed and threw on his nightgown. He walked to stand by his window, looking out at the stars. And felt lonely and betrayed.

Will Dib find the answer?

And Zim – discovers his isn't enjoying the charade any longer. So what will he do?

TBC


	7. When will this be over?

Dib07 – LAWL i can't believe it! Another update after a million – trillion years! Blame Sonic – he's been stealing my memory sticks and then chewing on them! Yes – really! I am terrible i know, letting down my readers by not updating and leaving this story to gather dust once again! I feel bad – and i don't have much time to write but i can't let you all down. Once again i thank you for your support and to Dib for his infinite inspiration.

Yeah i know, i am one of those disappointing authors that has BIG trouble updating! I apologize a million times but it can be too late for even that!!!

So sorry! *_*

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Liani Risate – Mahahahahah! Glad i grabbed your attention though! Yeah, Zim's gotta step in some time! That little devil can't help himself!

xxemo-princess666xx – Omg thx sooo much for the inspirational review – i mean it! And sorry for letting you down for this long. Plz forgive me!!!

P.A.W.07 – Awwww thx sooo much! God i love your reply! Yeah, i like Prof. Membrane and i feel like the IZ show never really explored/showed him fully. But god wasn't he interesting, even as just a character who only showed up sometimes!

FantomoDrako – Sorry for the lateness and everything else, and i've had sooo much on my plate lately. Hope you like! (P.S if you get this my internet has been down – got a virus and don't know when i'm gonna be able to fix it. Using a friend's computer right now – sorry!).

Billie the fourth sage – LoLOLOL another update at last! I need a slap!

GreenEyedLunarWolf – nice name!!! Thx for the review!

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Chapter 7: When will this be over?

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'_When will this be over? This cold and bitter season?__'__ - Box Car Racer_

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Dib did not sleep easy. In fact, he was surprised he had slept at all. The dreams held a prison of agony, and he relived it before waking up drizzled in sweat. Dib had never known such a long, suffocating night before in his short life.

As his doctor's appointment time came ever closer, he decided not to go. The worry, the anxiety was too much, and as much as it made him a little coward, he just couldn't do it. Just couldn't, despite his burning desire to find out the truth. But common doctors didn't have great facilities or technically advanced medicine. They would prescribe him for something with a common cold, or even indigestion. They'd laugh at anything else he'd complain about and see him as nothing but a bored child.

His luck however changed not long after waking before any such appointments were due. A doctor came round to see him while he was still in his fluffy blue pyjamas. His dad said it was a doctor, but Dib wasn't silly. He knew it was another scientist, on of his dad's colleagues at the Lab. He gave him an good check up and took a blood sample. Dib didn't even spare one glance at the syringe that took the blood. Upon leaving Dib got dressed and stayed in his room, listlessly resting on his desk and listening to the birds singing outside.

He could hear his father talking on the phone a little later– or ranting more like, in the other room just out of hearing shot. Dib left his desk that he had been resting on; mind drizzled in thoughts, to listen more closely. But he couldn't make out much.

"No." Membrane said hastily, "but he won't need to go to that place. I have all the facilities here or at my lab, understand?"

Dib opened his door and saw the lab coat scientist facing away from him on the top of the stairs. He bunched his shoulders in rising tension. "I wish I knew." He continued, "I think somehow though, he could have been defected from crea - birth."

"That is not the case, otherwise we would have picked it up earlier." Came the answer from the phone – just loud enough to hear. In case of being seen, Dib backed away from the door so that he was out of sight.

"It's not that." Said Prof. Membrane, "it must have been caused by an outside factor."

Dib shut his door quietly and sat down on his bed.

_I miss Zim. _Dib was soon watching television on a stand by the bed without physically watching it. And as he did, his mind trailed to school and the mischievous alien up to no good in class. He missed the fighting, and he missed exchanging insults at every corner. He wondered if the Irken missed him too. Which was foolish to think. _Of course he doesn__'__t miss me. He turned me away when I needed help. He__'__s always done that, no matter how many times I__'__ve helped him with Tak and the bologna issue._

If anything, he was sure Zim wanted him dead.

"Everything I've worked for, wasted." He sighed and sipped on his can of coke. The television screen flashed to the commercials. Going to the enemy for help, or even thinking it was a bad idea anyway. He was trying to show the whole world what was walking in the midst. It was no good trading with both parties.

When Membrane entered the lounge he looked up at him curiously and his heart did a summersault in his chest. "Well, who were you talking to dad?" His American accent suddenly seemed harsh to his ears.

Membrane sat beside him stiffly. "It was the doctor." It sounded like a lie. "He said that we need to change medication. The stronger pills will be better."

"Why do I need stronger pills?"

"To bring down the levels of your illness."

"And what is my illness exactly?" _Come on, dad, I am not a fragile eggshell. Tell me._

Membrane chuckled dryly. It sounded alien to Dib's ears. "Come with me and I'll show you. The doctor left some equipment in the kitchen for you."

Dib wondered what was so humorous about that. He stood and followed his father into the old dining room where a large mirror hung on the wall over the table and the small fridge hummed sickly in the corner. Before his son could throw him another question, he saw it. It was a machine you saw in the hospitals. It was an ECG. At least, that was what it looked like.

"What… what is it for?" His voice cracked and he looked up at his father expectantly.

"It's for you, son. I need to record your vitals every so often, to make sure everything is as right as rain!"

"Stop with the riddles!" He emanated a feral shout, "what is happening to me!"

Membrane went down on his knees so that Dib didn't have to look up to see into his eyes. "The doctor said you must have received some sort of electric shock earlier. What have your school activities been like? Anything electric in science perhaps? Biology?"

"No!" He stunted sadly.

Membrane sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Well, the doctor gave you an adequate examination and concluded that you need a change of meditation."

"Okay. Why?"

"Well, after you use a drug for so long, it begins to lose its effectiveness."

"But I've only been taking that disgusting Quinidine for a few days!"

"Yes, but as an illness progresses, you need stronger medication." Yes. Membrane had said what he wanted to hear, even if it wasn't good news. Dib felt like gagging.

"So I am getting worse!" He cried.

"No… I mean…"

Dib ignored him completely this time. He was not going to be spoon-fed more little lies just to hide him from the truth. He ran up to his room and slammed his door shut. As he did so, a nauseating wave of dizziness slithered through his head and he had to kneel down on the floor until it passed. When it had, he locked his door (he activated his old security system that was meant to keep certain aliens from entering his room) and sought through old science books. He would find out what was wrong with him for himself. He went on the internet as well when the books became limited.

He spent hours searching. The results on Google were not good. It was something to do with either his circulatory system – nervous system – or both. Maybe his cells were degenerating.

_OmyGod OhmyGod_

He turned his computer off and sat staring at the black computer screen. He wanted to cry, he wanted to scream. "I'm dreaming. I'm dreaming."

Maybe it was a mistake. Maybe that wasn't what he had at all.

But it was. Deep down, he knew it was.

_I think i'm .... dying...._

Dib buried his head in his arms and tried to keep calm. But no matter how hard he tried to keep them away, the tears came in great floods. His laments were heavy and long. "Why? Why me?" He was so scared. He thought these kind of things only happened to other people, not to him!

_What about the hospital? _Some sane voice inside of him said. _Surely they can help you there?_

"No, they can't…" More tears splashed down his insipid cheeks, "if my dad can't fix me, how can they do any better?"

He heard his dad knocking on his door.

"Son? I know you're upset but I don't want you locking yourself in your room. It's not safe when you're not well." Dib bit his lip. "I'm going to work now. I'll be back around seven in the evening. I want you to unlock this door and take your new medicine."

Dib haggardly rose erect from his chair and unlocked his door. His dad nodded his approval at this but then his face changed to one of sorrow. "Son? Have you been crying?"

"No, dad." He wiped the last tears in his eyes. "I just poked my eye by accident…"

His excuse fell flat, but Membrane pretended that he believed it. "Okay. Remember to take the medicine and I will be back later tonight. Wrap up warm and watch TV."

"All right." He sighed. But this time, when Membrane left, he was afraid to be left on his own. He thought of the worst.

_What if I collapse while no one__'__s home? What if I get worse?_

The new pills were huge great white drops. He had trouble swallowing the prescribed amount. When he had he sauntered about the house, feeling depressed and rueful. Finally he sat on the beige colored sofa and watched the big screen TV. As long as he sat still after taking medicine, he did not experience headaches or dizziness. He felt normal.

Zim did not listen in his class any more. He wasn't sure why. Whenever he sat behind his desk while Ms. Bitter's ranted on about doom and how bad the weather was lately, he just sort of switched off. In a way he did it whenever he was bored, which was what most kids did when their teacher bored them to death with meaningless lectures. But he always listened to what Ms. Bitter's had to say, incase he missed some kind of vital information on how to exploit earth's weaknesses. Last night he had thought of global warming and how it was happening slowly but surely through the ages, thus changing the planet and threatening all human life. He liked that. He wanted to use it somehow. And when he decided to draw up some plans on a machine that could further increase global warming by fifty percent, his enthusiasm suddenly dropped through the floor and he had no motive to continue building it. It was as if world domination didn't excite him anymore, which was very untrue, surely?

_What the hell is wrong with ZIM? It__'__s that DIB! He__'__s ruined my plans again by doing absolutely NOTHING about anything!_

"This wet, sunny day will forecast terrible DOOM on all your lives today," continued Ms. Bitter's in her usual sharp voice, "because it shall. And you will all regret having a sun."

Zim started to fidget in his seat. Things were changing. And he didn't like it. No longer did he have the welcome plan of any jurisdiction. And hated it.

Like he had a strong impulsive disorder, he kept glancing over at Dib's empty seat. It had been empty for almost a week now, if you excluded the weekends. But even so, and even when he knew Dib wasn't going to pop in suddenly, he couldn't help looking over and miserably sighing when he saw that the seat was empty of its occupant. He expected it empty. But when he saw that it was, it made him all the more solemn and dejected.

Though he resisted it, a thought came to him out of the sea of his sadness. _HOW did the Dib get so sick? He never had it before. So why now? Do humans accumulate diseases over time? Or is it bad luck? Or__…__ Or__…_

He wanted to know. And it wasn't fair. He wanted to beat Dib. He wanted to taste that victory. But no, some illness had already beat him to it. He slammed his fist on his desk and every child in that room turned eyes to him. Zim coughed nervously and smiled sheepishly back at them. Ms. Bitter's didn't seem to mind the outburst. She continued mundanely, "and the warmth from the sun will spread, until you are ALL doomed."

When the bell rang for the end of class, Zim, almost without any control over himself, walked over to Dib's desk and trailed a gloved claw over its work surface with barely any purpose but grief. His finger came away with dust.

At his base, after he had marched briskly home after school to get away from the human worm babies, his mood ate at him here too. _If I don__'__t do something__…__ Dib will die__…_

He shook his head. _Phhsh! I won__'__t help that pig! It__'__s probably what he wants! So he__'__ll win! Besides, I can__'__t help him even if I tried! He__'__s dead anyway!_

His claws swiped at the air as his silent ranting throbbed in his head. He had to sit down. Gir was watching TV. He ALWAYS seemed to be fixed to the kid's channels. The little robot would hoot all kinds of words that didn't made the slightest bit of sense. He made noises out of excitement or merely because he wanted to be heard. Sometimes his giggles and explosion of stupid noises made Zim want to beat him with a stick. Nah, a stick was too primitive. A human-made axe would do. But then, he thought to himself, it's just a bit of stick upgraded to look like an axe.

Zim sat on the sofa and decided to watch the cartoons with his robot. He had no desire to go down into his lab and start work anyhow.

"Maria…" Said a voice on screen. People were running. There was a ship. Animals or whatever were cheering.

"I'm scarlet!" Gir chirped randomly, "woohoo I'm a war machine!"

Zim flicked channels. It was soap.

"Sandra…"

"Yes, John?"

"I'm dying…"

He turned the television off. Gir shot him a confused, almost sad look. "Why'd you stop the TV showing me all those things?" He asked in probably the most rational answer Zim had ever heard him say.

"You can watch them, Gir." He replied tautly, "but I'm not." He stood and made his leave. He took the toilet entrance down to his lab. The tubes down here were less crammed with machinery and junk that he'd probably never get to use now.

The nest of his lab beneath made him feel a little better about himself. It was warm down here and bright with giant overhead lights. The shiny red and black tubes, and the metal and alien material was a welcome sight after being in the human world for so long. But the first thing and probably the only thing he did was return back to the main computer screen. He stood facing the black monitor for a few seconds, as if silently telling himself if he really wanted to do this. Then, after a good hard pause…

"Computer!" His voice webbed through the ominous silence of his lab, "initiate all readings. I want a visual of that Dib!"

He wanted to look through those spy cameras in Dib's house. He wanted to SEE if the human was still alive. Though Dib's illness was not that advanced yet, Zim knew it would happen soon. And being an Irken, he had no firm idea on what this illness was going to do to him. The disease affected humans. And when it came to illnesses, Zim was a little lost on the whole concept. Irkens didn't get sick. In fact, before they were even born, a computer assessed whether the smeet had a genetic disorder or not and if it had some sort of error in its body chemistry, then it was simply aborted. That was how the Irken race was so clean, so pure and powerful. Humans on the other hand…

The computer screen winked on and the fuzz cleared briefly. He had exactly twenty-four cameras to look through. He chose the one that allocated in the Dib's room. Zim had a feeling he would be in that room the most.

The Irken elite was right. Dib was in there, wearing his usual dark attire of black boots, trench coat and cobalt blue shirt. He was on his bed, hovering over a washing up basin. The human was being sick. Zim's expression blanched and his teeth closed tightly so that it looked like he had a zipper running across the length of his mouth. He watched, horribly fascinated. Dib stopped vomiting and sipped down a glass of water on his nightstand. His hands were clearly shaking. Zim could discern this, even from the monitor.

_Human sicknesses work ever so rapidly._

"Computer." He spoke quietly, "how is the Dib now?"

The computer's response, though swift to react, was disappointing. "Insufficient data."

Zim ran a clawed hand over the lip of his head. His antennas twitched in worry. _Why? Why am I concerned over that worm?_

"Computer, tell me, why is Dib so sick?"

"Insufficient data. Need a sample from the bio life form. Need sufficient information."

Zim groaned.

All he could do, was watch.

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Dib07: Kind of a slow chappie right? Oh it'll come fast all right! When that happens, nobody knows! Sorry for the lateness again to all you readers out there. I promise another update will be sooner!


	8. The Edge

iluvdibandzim: Dude, hope this chappie helps! Don't want you to go exploding on me!!!

F#$%&* UNICORNS: Love your name!!! And thanks for the compliment! I solely write these stories for you (aka the readers) benefit!!! Hope you enjoy the chapter! I think it is one of my better ones!

Reader: Thanks! It is!

IceShadow27: Sorry for how loooong the update took! Hope this helps!!!

FantomoDrako: Lolol hope you're out there! Need to send you a message but i don't get much time on my dad's PC since he uses it all the time for work. Saving up for a PC. Probably get another virus tho as soon as i get the internet back again. Writing on paper 24/7 ain't fun.

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Chapter 8; The edge

'_For, I really I am not.__'__ Great Expectations __–__ Charles Dickens_

Dib felt trapped within the walls of his own home. He wasn't even allowed out to get the groceries. His house keys were taken away from him and he was allowed no snacks of any kind. This included chocolate, sugar or anything like that. He didn't really mind the food part that much anyhow. His stomach kept playing up and he didn't know whether to eat, or to vomit violently down the toilet. Pro. Membrane stayed home a few hours more each day. And all that extra time he spent with his son. Dib was glad, but he felt swollen with sadness. He didn't want pity. He knew that if Zim was this way too, he'd be the same. His dad was here, only because he was sick. It was ironic. His own son had to be ill in order for his father to realize how important parents were to their children.

Gaz was the one person that hadn't changed. (Even Zim was acting overly concerned on the phone calls and that from the Irken led to bitterness like the day he asked him for help). She was always playing her game consoles, never once lifting her attention away unless it was for food and the general needs of the body. And this whole limbo he was in seemed to benefit her. He was very quiet lately. He hadn't the strength to hold a conversation, and Gaz liked the silence.

After a light dinner of soup, Dib watched the sunset from his window. The ethereal golds and reds were hypnotizing. The whole horizon was clothed in bright pink. Dib knew that no sunset lasted long. Soon the sky would darken swiftly as the thick hot sun descended. Then there would be nothing after that but the betrothing darkness for company. In a sense, it was like his life. The sunset mimicked his precipice of change, and that soon, after a full though short life of sun and warmth, there would soon be nothing but dark coldness. And what, if after that darkness, his sun never rose again?

He ran his thin white fingers softly over the cold glass and watched the steam of his breath make a halo of condensation. He had always some remote fear of the darkness. It implied monsters, the unknown. The unforeseen. Luckily Zim did not know this. It looked like it might stay that way too.

He remembered earlier in the day, while his fellow peers were at school, he was in his room when a sparrow hit his glass window pane. The initial impact of the bird had made him jump. He got up from sitting at his desk and opened his window which now had a grimy dirt mark on the surface. He looked down and saw the bird, dead on the pavement below. It had been a sad sight. And he couldn't help but think that it was _his _window that had caused the death of an innocent creature.

Death. It was a bitter word in his head.

When he closed the window, he knew everything would eventually die. It was a fact of nature. The only thing that had any guarantee when you were born was that you would die.

He would die. Gaz would die. Even his father. For not even Professor Membrane could discover a formula which could bring about eternal youth. Even Zim would probably die one day too. The alien was surely old already after hearing Zim gawk about how long Irkens could live for a few months ago. Because it didn't matter how advanced a species was when it came to the forces of nature. Everything had to have an end. Even Zim.

And Dib's life clock was ticking. He felt like it was ticking faster than ever. Now that he was confronted by time, he regretted all those months he had wasted chasing Zim. Instead he could have enjoyed life a bit more. He could have done something useful, like visiting his dad at work, or having more fun. He could have done anything.

Now it was too late.

Or was it?

_Maybe dad can invent a cure for me? Maybe he__'__s making one right now? Is that why he__'__s so stressed and busy?_

The lingering glow from the last crescent of sun melting into the horizon cast a sulphurous glow into his room and made his glasses gleam with gold incandescence.

Zim marched riotously up to Dib's front door shortly after school. The light darkness smothered the town in a foggy veil were the lights acted like soft orange halos. Zim didn't like the autumn. Or the winter. In fact, he hated all seasons the earth had dared to throw at him. Irk didn't have any seasons. And that was very efficient. Now being on a planet where there was constant change deeply irritated him.

He frigidly rapped his knuckles three times on the door. His fake square indigo eyes were narrowed and his lips were taut into a fine line. He hated being here. He hated being more than a few hundred meters from his base. Though, he should feel relatively safe. After all, Gaz had never shown any hints of harming him, and Dib was the only one who saw him for what he truly was. And he was out of action. Of course, that didn't mean that Dib was entirely incapable of throwing a few punches or chasing him again. That's what Zim admired about the human. He was a fighter. He rarely gave up or backed down. But today, Zim didn't know how far gone Dib was. And then he asked himself a question. One that surfaced in his mind while he waited.

"What is the great ZIM doing here?" His reflection in the doorknob seemed to sneer at him. What was he doing here? First he had been at school, staring at Dib's desk and measuring the dust on it, then he had stiffly spied on the weasel for a few minutes at his base. That somehow ran up to the conclusion that he would come here.

"That's it!" He wanted a sample from the Dib beast. Whether it be a particle of skin… or hair. Then he could feed it to the computer and find out why the Dib was this way.

To his disappointment (he had been feeling that too much lately) Gaz opened the door. Her face was set into a hard shell of indifference and she lowered her head aggressively when she saw Zim.

"What do you want?" She asked so coldly, it made his spine tingle. In her hands she gripped the GameSlave 3. On the little screen the red words PAUSE kept blinking spasmodically.

"I want to see the Dib. I have homework to give him." _Nice lie. _He told himself.

"Homework?" The shell on her face cracked away a little. Zim could almost physically see it happen on her face. Boy was he glad he didn't live with her everyday like Dib did. "He won't be going to school for a while. So I suggest you take the homework elsewhere." She told him sharply. Her eyes were derived of any rapport.

"Urm, can't I see the horrid Dib weasel? I urm… need to speak with him about something that's VERY important! It involves the fate of EARTH!"

"Not this again." She started to close the door. Zim jammed his foot in the way. Gaz growled warningly. "Just go away! I don't have time for this. If I let you back in; I'll have to see to it that you get out again! And my game will soon be running low on batteries!"

Zim couldn't take it. "Fine, you pathetic human!" He roared, and he withdrew his foot from the door. "I'm letting you off the hook this time but…"

"Hook from what?" She asked impatiently.

Zim eyed her angrily. Perhaps if he shouted loud enough, Dib would hear him and come down to see what all the fuss was about? Maybe?

"YOU CAN'T STOP ME LITTLE GAZ!" He literally screamed, "YOU WILL ALL BE DESTROYED!" Gaz punched him in the chest. Zim, eyes shut against the red haze of pain, stumbled back onto the sidewalk. The next thing he knew, Gaz had slammed the front door shut, and it never opened after that.

For the first time in a long while, Zim swore violently. He swore until his mouth went dry.

***

It was almost past midnight when the professor returned home from work. Under both arms he carried bundles of papers that looked more like thick white slabs. He set both piles on the table and briefly rubbed his forehead with a gloved hand.

He had been working so hard that time had simply slipped by so quickly. He hadn't noticed how late it was until he glanced at his wristwatch for when he should buy himself lunch.

He suspected after pulling up in his car that both his children were asleep in bed. After all, the whole house had been devoid of any lights.

He flicked a small white light on in the kitchen and slumped down in the chair at the table. He was tired. He had been tired for days now. That special syrup that he invented had supposed to have kept the general weariness and sleep at bay. But he guessed the potent formula didn't work after you were up for several days in a row without sleep.

"But how can I sleep when my little boy's dying?" He never showed much emotion when he was with Dib and Gaz. Father's weren't supposed to show emotion. Mother's did that. That was how he was brought up anyhow.

Pro. Membrane flicked through the newly brought in papers idly. Pages upon pages of text. Useless text that he had printed off from the big photocopier in the lab. None of the words could bring a solution. None of them.

Page 43 he paused at and read a sentence through.

'_Invariably there are so easy rules to follow. Degeneration commences soon after the process is done. This can be months or close to approx. 2 years.__'_

Pro. Membrane grimaced behind his high collar and remembered back to what one of his colleagues had said.

Jacob had caught him after break and sat him down in the cafeteria. "Pro. Membrane," he was saying hesitatingly, "Remember I had a child once. He died too. But I brought him back using your theory. The process called reconstructing. You can do it with your son!"

The professor had not said anything back. He could not do what Jacob had done with his son. Dib's very cells, his very DNA were like threads that were weaving out from the blue prints of his genetic make up. If he brought him back, may the Gods forbid it, it just wouldn't work.

"Sod it all." Pro. Membrane snapped out of his reverie and stood to get a glass of purified water. The gelid liquid shot down his throat like a bullet. He almost slammed the glass down after he had finished. _I__'__m the greatest scientist since__…__ since__…__ Oh I don__'__t know__…__ But I__'__m supposed to fix things! Why can__'__t I do it anymore? When it__'__s for my own child? _"Oh why?" He had cured countless diseases and illnesses before. now he felt so helpless. He couldn't stand it. "A few more days of work." He told himself. "I might figure out something. I _have_ to figure out something."

"Dad…?"

That voice brought tears to his eyes, but he blinked them away before they had a chance of showing. He turned and saw his young son peering at him from the kitchen doorway. He looked so small and thin. It made him want to cry. But he didn't. He daren't. Because that meant that everything was hopeless. Showing emotion meant that the illness had already won. Well it hadn't. Not by a long shot.

"Son." He smiled grimly, but his eyes did not. "What are you doing up at this hour? Shouldn't you be in bed? It's…" Again he consulted the time on his wrist watch, "half past midnight."

"Sorry." He swallowed loudly. "I couldn't sleep. And then I heard the front door open. I wanted to see you."

He nodded almost too casually. "When did you last take your medication?"

Dib nervously played with the collar of his pyjama top. "At eleven."

"Well, you've seen me, son. Now I suggest you try and get some rest. I'll see you in the morning."

Dib felt like he had been slapped. His father didn't seem happy to see him at all. But the boy didn't argue. He was too tired to do anything except rest. "Fine." He turned when his father called him back.

"Son?"

He looked over his shoulder. "Yeah?"

"What's that on your sleeve?"

Dib peered at both his sleeves and smiled nervously despite himself. He knew he should have changed pyjamas. Earlier that night after watching his recorded program of Mysterious Mysteries he had been very sick. He didn't know what had caused it because he hadn't eaten anything. Or maybe it was the sight of Gaz slurping down a particularly cheesy chunk of pizza that tipped him over the edge. Either way, he had successfully heaved into the toilet, but alas some of his stomach acid had apparently stained his sleeve. He saw it as no big a deal. Changing into fresh yet cold pyjamas was not a welcoming aspect.

"Oh, that's just a bit of sick," he innocently stated in a thick, carefree voice, "I was gonna clean up but…"

"Dib, come here."

He called him by his name. He hated it when his dad called him that. He complied and staggered forward like a zombie. When he was right in front of him, his father bent down and rested his gloved hands on his arms. As he spoke to him, the professor gently felt Dib's chest and stomach like a doctor would examine a patient for any abnormalities. The small scythe haired boy was shivering. "Have you had anything to eat today?"

"Urm…" He coughed and his amber orbs flicked from side to side, "I had a glass of milk in the morning and some orange juice later…"

His father ruefully shook his head. "Come. Let me check your weight on the weighing scales."

"Uh, no, I think I'm okay." He said with a guilt-ridden grin. But no matter what he said, his father's mind was set like concrete. He took a firm hold of Dib's scrawny wrist and led him forcefully into the small bathroom. The cold tiles stung Dib's bare feet.

Pro. Membrane slid the scales out from under the bath. The thin red line was set over the 0. Dib, not needing to be asked (or rather told) twice, stepped lightly on to them. He was cursing quietly under his breath all the while. The red marker glided swiftly to the numbers 69. Even Dib grimaced at the number.

_I only weigh 69 pounds? _He thought._ That's only 5 stone! And I'm not even trying! _And that was scary. He was sure he was supposed to weigh a healthier 80 pounds.

Pro. Membrane gripped Dib's shoulder tightly but he didn't say anything. He then took Dib off the scales and shoved them back under the bathtub. With some force, he guided his thin son up to his room where he tucked him into bed. Still without adding any word to his actions, he turned Dib's light off and went to the phone back in the lounge to make a call to the doctor.

***

_I want things to go back to the way they were. _Zim's claws hovered over his keyboard until he reluctantly withdrew them. His recent wish above all else didn't involve world domination. Nor did it involve murder on a massive scale. He wanted Dib back. He wanted life to rewind and go before any of this happened. He wanted the games. He wanted the chases, the insults, the threats. Dib stimulated him into thinking of new ideas for world conquest. Dib gave him the initial enthusiasm to fight back and peel off more plans.

Now, everything had seemed to place itself on pause. There was always a small hope that maybe things could continue normally again, if perhaps Dib got well. But after watching the innards of the Membrane house for a good half hour, that hope of a chance had all been forgotten.

Time.

Zim was a victim to it too. It was a concept that not only did the humans use it, but his race used it as well. The older an invader was, the more experienced he became and the more respected he could be. But most of it was all fairy tales. Here he was, the same age as the Tallest (well, near enough) and he was still not great leader of the Irkens.

_However, if I, ZIM conquers this spinning ball of filth, I may get the promotion I__'__ve always wanted._

The thought of a promotion seemed like a dull tune next to his real desires of getting Dib back and healthy again.

_Then think of something ZIM! Think of something, anything that might do something!_

Instead of plans for destruction, he began to think of plans that could preserve life for his enemy. His ultimate nemesis. As he thought however, he wondered that if Zim were in the same position as the human, would Dib ever help him too?

"I think he did… once…"

Once was enough, he decided. Lying like a couch potato on the sofa wasn't exactly what he called as life-threatening. He was not dying in any way. And he had no idea Irkens were such victims to depression. But Dib had come. Dib had shown him what it was like to enjoy what he had. What they had. And that in a way, was being saved.

Now it was Dib's turn. The favor would be returned. Zim was tired of waiting for the ugly scientist to think of something by his own (Dib's father). He was taking too long.

"How should ZIM do this?" The Irken left his seat and began pacing up and down his tight narrow alien chamber like a vexed sentry. "What if I make a small nano ship again? And go inside him? Oh but it would be so DISGUSTING!" His fists punched the air. "I would never do that! Not again!" After a good battle at the nothingness that surrounded him but air, the Irken leaned against his computer chair. His long thick antennas bobbed up and down in perfect sync with each other. _Scratch that plan. _It was too risky. What if the job was too serious? Too large of a scale? Yeah sure, he had attacked Dib's brain before, but that was for destruction. Not for preservation.

Zim slunk back into his chair, wilting with defeat. There was nothing he could do.

"It's the end."

He sat there for a long time. It could have been hours while he stared at nothing but his slick black boots. Then, an idea hit him and he rose from his seat to make his way to the upper floor of the lab. Back up top.

***

Dib was turning pages in an old alien magazine he had bought in the summer holidays. There was little else he could do except read. He sighed and leaned back into his pillow that he had propped up. On his nightstand at the end of his bed was a plate of food. He hadn't touched it. It was his father who had made the sandwich and who had placed an apple by the refreshment. Even so, Dib had no appetite. He kept on vomiting. The sick basin beside his bed was proof of that. Why eat anyway when you would just puke it out again later?

There was a faint knock on his window. Dib jumped, clearly startled. He looked up and saw a certain green Irken peering in at him from his window. The human's surprised complexion quickly turned into a grimace.

"What are you doing here Zim?" He rose his voice so that the Irken could hear him through the window. No doubt the Irken could hear a whisper thanks to his sensitive antennas. But raising his voice also might bring his dad up to his room to investigate. Sadly, Dib soon realized that his father was back at work.

Zim, his all-time enemy was in his poor human disguise. His lilac eyes looked hard and stern, but the façade probably hid his true expression.

_But how on earth did he manage to climb to my window?_

"You can't get me in here, Zim!" Dib called angrily, "the window is locked! So go away!"

"I won't go away, human." His voice came to him faintly through the thick glass. Pro. Membrane had it double-glazed last winter. "And just because you are in your room does not make you any safer." Zim pushed the window open with ease. Dib bit his lip. The window hadn't been locked at all. Zim noted his look of surprise and grinned, as if this whole thing was giving him a lot of satisfaction.

Dib suddenly felt embarrassed to be caught in bed, and in his pyjamas. He was totally off-guard.

He ripped the blankets off him and dashed like a cheetah to the window frame where the alien was just about to set foot in his room. Dib, with unusual force, backed up by pure adrenaline, shoved Zim back out again. That was when he saw the ladder propped up against the wall of the house. So Zim was using human methods of getting up to his room? There was no fancy, foreign technology? No alien super enhancement?

The top of the ladder was too far down the window ledge to reach, as he snidely thought about pushing the ladder away so that it would fall, taking an ugly green monster with it. besides, he knew Zim was probably already expecting the tactic and would grab his wrist and throw him down before he had a chance of grabbing the ladder.

It was stalemate.

"I'm nothing to you anymore, Zim." Dib croaked as sternly as he could muster from his diminishing mettle, "why are you here? Do you want me to die faster or something? Is this pace not fast enough for your superior mind?"

Zim shook his head. Then he added some what grimly, "ah, so you admit that you are dying?"

His word's were unnaturally quiet and reserved. The way he had said it sent a small shiver through Dib's spine.

"I'm sick." He complied simply. "Really sick. That's why I'm not going to school, Zim. At least not for a while. Now leave… I…" He paused and for a moment Zim thought his enemy was about to shed a tear. "I give up. I am no threat to you anymore. I can't fight you."

Against Dib's knowledge, Zim knew all about the human's condition. But he decided to play along for now.

"Are you giving ZIM permission to take over this rotten planet that you call home?"

"No!" Dib snapped automatically, "just… just go and bother someone else! Now answer my question, alien! Why are you here? To gloat over me? To hurt me? What?"

Zim watched him contently from the open window, face drawn into a malicious frown. Then he said something Dib would never have thought he'd say. "I wanted to see you."

Dib burst into humorless laughter for two seconds. Then he recovered quickly. "Yeah _riiight_. Do you want to grab a glass of cocoa and watch the Ferret show with me too?"

His open show of mockery did not sit well with Zim. But the alien let it pass… for now. He knew of Dib's limits, even if the boy did not know himself.

When Zim did not speak straight away, Dib said, "well you've seen me know. And I'm not at my best form, what with my starry pyjamas and all."

Finally, Zim allowed himself a small chuckle. "Oh you poor creature. I was just checking to see if you were doing anything suspicious. But you're not. You are being sad and pathetic like always. I've wasted my time." He started to climb down the ladder.

"ZIM!" Dib put his head out the window and the alien instantly stopped his careful descent.

"What is it now you horrible creature?" The Irken asked.

"I…" His eyes were wide and Zim could see pain in those eyes. And fear. Fear that he did not enforce.

Dib opened his mouth, then closed it again. It looked like he really wanted to say something. Zim, for perhaps the first time in his life on this planet, showed patience. But to the alien's disappointment, Dib mentally changed his mind and said something that was not intentional. "Goodbye Zim." It sounded more like a final farewell.

Zim lowered his eyes and did not return the gesture. Instead he stepped all the way down the ladder and prepared to leave in a hurry. When he looked back, the human's window was tightly shut, and Dib was not there. He had gone.

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Thanks for all the reviews and yes, the favs and watches!!!! I am out there! Doodling or writing! You support me so darn much! You readers have the power!!!! Without you i am nothing!


	9. Reality

DIB07: Dude i cannot apologize enough. Sorry out there. This was a long time coming. It's coming to an end and sorry it's dragging out en such. It DOES have an End and it does get goodish. A special thank you to ALL my dear readers. You've waited more than long enough. Your reviews have made me laugh and made me enjoy writing this story for you. I deserve a good slap for making yous wait!

* * *

Chapter 9; Reality

'_I want to know what you meant.__'__–__ Cradle of Filth __–__ Mr. Crowley_

* * *

Sorrow. Pain.

Up until now, Dib didn't really know much about these words. Now he did. He knew their meaning. And he hated it.

When he saw Zim he wanted to run out and join him. He wanted to fight. He wanted to chase that alien right out of his street. He wanted to pour out all of his anger and grief at his nemesis. But he couldn't. His body built wires of imprisonment round his soul and he was trapped in a sickness he didn't know much about.

The cacophony of agony was never far away and his mouth was dry from all the pills he had to down. The sight of Zim brought back memories that seemed so long ago.

Later that night, Dib felt very sick again. Whenever the pain got to a certain level, it started to tighten round his chest like someone was pulling wires round his thorax until his lungs struggled to draw in air. It was a horrible sensation.

He took more tablets and he was sure that by now he was by far exceeding his recommended dosage.

Feeling uncomfortable and lost, he went downstairs and joined Gaz in the lounge. She was sitting on the sofa, legs crossed and her Game EX on her lap. Her fingers danced on the buttons in fervid excitement and all that he could be heard were the pings and pongs from the game sounds as she went through the level. When she saw her brother enter, she shot him a dark glare. "I heard you talking to someone earlier." She said quickly, as her attention slowly crept back into his mind-absorbing game.

"When?"

"When you were in your room."

"I talk to myself a lot practically _all_ the time." Dib replied.

"I heard someone else's voice. Was it Zim?"

"Yes. The stupid alien somehow managed to reach my fricken' window." He coughed deeply and waited for the sharp pain it brought to dull. "I mean, what the hell does he want anyway? He's always bugging me. Probably doesn't have anything else left to do in his spare time but keep his tabs on me."

"Whatever."

Dib tensed as another wrench of pure agony struck him across his shoulder blades. Sparks of dizziness passed over him and he thought he'd better grab a glass of water and then quickly retreat to bed. He seldom went anywhere around the house anymore except rest on his mattress.

He left the lounge and sauntered into the kitchen. He flicked the light switch on and the dim illumination made the eating-area look drab and sullen. The world outside the window only mirrored his reflection when he looked out at it.

He grabbed a glass and turned on the faucet until the cold water filled half the cup. When he lifted the glass to his lips, a coil of pain snapped inside and he almost dropped the cup.

Breathing shallowly, he put the tumbler on the side and clamped a hand to his chest.

"Not now… I've taken all the medicine… so why now?" He pinched his eyes shut before opening them again. He rose his amber orbs to look at the clock face over the kitchen table. Dad wouldn't be coming home for a few more hours at least.

He limped over to the table, and hoped the pain would ease, or eventually go blunt.

As he struggled to keep his knees from buckling, he thought of Zim and what he had said earlier.

"_I wanted to see you.__"_

Dib shut his eyes against the fiery pain. "Zim…"

_I want to know what you meant._

_I want to know._

He saw big black stars. He saw bright flashes. He was so scared.

His knees hit the tiles on the kitchen floor. Sweat dripped off the tip of his nose. He fought; he desperately fought to keep conscious. He was scared of the blackness. It was his weakness. He hated the dark. Hated the unknown. But deep down, he knew he was losing the fight. His consciousness was slipping away like sand and he couldn't hold on to it.

The voices filled his head. The image of Zim comforted him.

"_I wanted to see you.__"_

"_Yeah riiight. Do you want to grab a glass of cocoa and watch the Ferret show with me too?__"_

The blackness rushed up to embrace him like a giant bat with cacophonic wings. And he fell right into them.

* * *

_Dib is much more far gone that I anticipated._

His face had been as white as snow. And he was thin and fragile. As fragile as glass.

"And still no sample!" Zim moaned to himself as he walked stiff-kneed back to his base. He had obtained no fragment of hair, or anything. It had been a waste going to his house and seeing him there in a bed like an invalid. And it had only been six o'clock in the evening!

"Oh but who actually cares!" He was an Irken elite! A warrior! "Leave the weasel to die! It's the only thing humans are any good at!"

Why did he care so much about the Dib anyway? It was good that he would be out of commission. Then he could finally do his mission! He could! He could!

As he walked up to his front door a sharp breeze cut across his skin. It made him brace against the chill and a sense of doom rang through him. A sense of wrong. But he couldn't place why he felt this.

When the breeze had passed, he shook the feeling away and entered his home. "I can take over earth now! What is stopping the all powerful ZIM?" Then he wondered what he truly wanted. And he wasn't quite sure.

Next, when Zim went to school it was an unusually cold day. Before his English lesson he went up to the lockers on the bottom floor corridor to get his Shakespeare textbooks. He marched down the corridor quickly, so that he could get his belongings before the other children crowded the room. However, when he approached his locker door, he saw that Dib was there, and who had accessed his own locker not far from Zim's.

The alien's jaw dropped open. "Dib!"

Dib lifted his head up in an almost graceful way. He looked healthier. He didn't have those dark rings around his eyes anymore.

"Dib! I thought you said you wouldn't be coming to school for a while. You lied earth stink!"

"Oh? Well, I haven't come back." The human replied calmly as if he were speaking more to a friend than an enemy, "I'm just here to pick up my bag. I left it here by accident. I'm leaving SKOOL for good."

Zim's faint smile transformed into a snarl. "Why? You're fine! Look at you! I'm not letting you go now that you're here!"

Dib closed his locker door and turned to face his nemesis. His eyes were narrowed behind his glasses. "I don't want to play games. I _have _to leave."

"Then I'll stop you." Zim regarded him angrily and walked a little to his left so that he was now directly between Dib and the exit.

"Why are you trying to stop me, Zim?" Dib holstered his bag onto his shoulder. "You hate me, remember? And I hate you. Now do us both a favor and step aside."

Zim did not budge. "You'll have to get through me first."

Without a moment of hesitation, Dib unexpectedly lunged himself at the Irken. The sudden force sent Zim straight into someone's locker. Even then, the thin human did not let up. He forced the alien to the floor and kicked him hard in the ribs before retreating. But Zim was quick to recover. Dib's advantage had been lost the micro-second he let go and this time it was Zim who nailed him to the ground.

"Let me go, Zim." Dib breathed raggedly, "_you _have to let me go. This is pointless! Please! Why do you fight?"

"Because if I don't, then you will win. ZIM can't have that." He answered grimly with mild irritation.

"You _don__'__t _understand, Zim!"

"I understand perfectly."

Dib struggled vainly, but Zim held him tight. "You have to let go of me! I have to go!"

"No!"

Then Dib looked at him and Zim saw the pain back in those large amber eyes. And when the human opened his mouth, Zim was repulsed to see a thin crack of blood weed its way down Dib's bottom lip.

"You have to let go. _We _have to let go."

"Why, human?"

"Because this is how it must end. Isn't that what you wanted Zim? Isn't this how it's supposed to go?"

Zim was thrown back into reality and he woke up on the sofa in the lounge of his base. His respiration came heavy and loud. "Have I slept? Did I… dream?" It had felt all too real to be a simple dream. It was so deep and life-like. He had even felt the pain when Dib rammed him into that locker.

Zim pressed a gloved hand onto his warm forehead. He must have drifted off some time in the night. It was rare for an Irken to sleep, but it was still possible.

A sense of some premonition washed over him and he jumped to his feet. "The stink beast…"

He descended to one of his many catacombs within his lair and went to his main computer.

"Computer!" He shouted, peering at all the monitor screens that were filled with fuzzy static, "give me visuals on the Dib human immediately!"

"All right." There was a few second wait. Even that short amount of time was unbearable

Then…

"Visuals set."

The screens all came alive at once with motion and color and sound. But what he saw horrified him and a strange ache struck him deep in his squeedly spooch.

"Dib…"

* * *

Dib Kaiser never knew that there were that _many_ cracks on his pale blue ceiling. He could count them all from where he lay, dozens of them, all criss-crossing over each other like a road map. He wished he didn't have to count them. But all he could do was lie here and breathe in through his very new oxygen mask that fitted all too snugly over his nose and mouth.

Pro Membrane was holding his hand. He hadn't let go since he arrived.

The doctor had gone about every examination on him, even to the minutest detail. Some hurt.

His father's voice cut the air like a knife, "how is he, doctor?" Why did it seem so long since the last time he had heard his voice?

The doctor was writing something down on his notepad, in the way a policeman would while questioning his criminal. The doctor's hard little eyes came to rest on the scientist's.

"From the results of my analysis, your," he paused, looked down on his notes, and continued, "your son needs an operation. His health is deteriorating rapidly."

Dib felt his father's grip on his hand tighten. He could do nothing in return but lay there and stare at the ceiling. The new drugs in his system, (morphine being one of them) helped him feel dopey and utterly relaxed despite the situation. It was his father who had tucked him into bed. That much he could remember after waking up feeling cold and pained. The doctor had already arrived. And then the convulsions started. They were like weak tremors at first, until Dib felt the pain. Everything came hurtling back and the doctor had to give him a shot of strong morphine. Now he felt completely fine. So good in fact, that he wanted to leave his bed and go to school and see what everyone was up to, and what he had missed out over the past week and a half. But he was so tired.

"No, he can't, not right now."

"I'm not saying now," the doctor replied sympathetically, "but I'm saying that he does need to be transferred to a private hospital so that he can booked in for the treatment. Without it, this will happen again."

"It won't." Dib could see his father's shadow on the opposite wall. He could see the doctor's too. He was standing just left of the scientist. "I'm working on something that _will_ fix him."

"I hope so. Because if you don't have it ready for him by the end of this month, I'm coming back to transfer him, if it isn't too late by then, Professor."

He handed something long and silvery to his father, but Dib could not turn his head to see it.

"Take this and keep the oxygen tank on at all times. I suggest you work at home from now on. I'll be leaving now."

Pro. Membrane released his grip on Dib's hand and followed the doctor out of the room. His young, dying son didn't even notice as he slowly sunk into a pillow of dreams, where it was his only escape.

When Dib next woke, it was morning. The sunlight streamed out of his window and the grand light painted white patterns on his carpeted floor.

He found that he could move a little though not much. This was in the form of moving his hands and the ability turn over in bed. Other than that he was still rather helpless. When he tried to sit up however, he heard a voice beside him.

"No son, I'd keep lay still."

Dib turned his head and gasped slightly when he saw him. How could he not have noticed?

His father was by his bedside and he was sitting on one of Gaz's old pink chairs. Well, it looked like a pink blob without his glasses on, but he could still feel the cold mask over his face and he could clearly see the wires feeding into it.

Pro. Membrane took his son's hand softly and stroked his wild hair. Then, without really thinking about it, he blurted out the truth. He told Dib things that he had wanted to know from his father from the very start.

"Son, the reason you are like this, is because you're a clone. My clone. And in time – clones naturally deteriorate faster than their real life counterparts. Your heart is failing, and because of this all your other end organs are failing, including your kidneys."

"I… I know." He wanted the whole thing to be a lie. But now that Membrane had confirmed it, he felt all the more scared.

"You already know? How?" His voice was patient and gentle.

Dib found it hard to speak through the mask, but he did not remove it, in fear of what might happen if he did. "All the signs… were there… I… I…"

"Shush. The doctor came round again this morning to see how you were and I had constant surveillance over you all night. Also, I've set up monitors that record your vitals."

Meanwhile, Zim was initializing a rescue. Though his plan was hectic and some could say hasty and unthought-of, Zim had a feeling that what he was about to do - was right. In a way.

_Yeah, everything ends – right? Some die on their first day. Some die when they're eighty. There__'__s nothing you can do about it._

* * *

_Dib07: Lolol the next parts will probably be in 2 chaps before it ends. The enxt update won't take so long, promise! I love you guys!_


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